This weekend I headed up to Seoul to visit the DMZ or de-militerised zone between North and South Korea. It is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea.
'Located about 54km north west from Seoul Metropolitan City Hall and about 7km south of the Demarcation Line, Imjingak Pavilion is as far as civilians can go to the north. It is a remnant of the Korean War. Built in 1972 to console those who had to leave their homes in the north, it stands on the 19,835m² area and has three floors and one underground floor. Around it, there are Mangbaedan, an altar where those who cannot go back to their homes get together and pray for their ancestors, a museum where various documents and about 400 pictures are displayed to provide a rare look at North Korea's military, politics, and society, the Peace Bell, the Peace Garden, the Imjingang River Battle Memorial, the American War Monument, and tanks and planes that were used in the war. It is a place where tourists feel the pain of the war and national division as well as the country's desires for unification. '
We then headed to Dorasan Station, the station that used to connect the North and South.
It was pretty eerie. Just a normal train station waiting to be used, with a ticket booths, security check points just waiting for the the 2 countires to reunite for it to be in use again.
Next we headed to the The 3rd Infiltration Tunnel, there are 4 that have been found and there are supposed to be up to 10. We were not allowed to take any photos, and I got told off by Gina G our tour guide for taking some snaps of Victoria and I in our helmets. Have a look at this search to check out some though!
I didn't think I was a tall person, but I banged my head a few times, so could not imagine walking just over a mile in a tunnel that was wet and only 2m high and wide with all the gear that a North Korean soldier would have to carry.
There was also the Re-unification Monument, which "Depicts the division of Korea, and the world, and the hope to reunite what was divided."
The last stop was the Dora observatory. This where you can actually get to see North Korea. There was a line that we had to stand behind when taking photos of North Korea, so unless you were super tall, you couldn't really get a good photo.
Also it was really foggy so we couldn't really see much anyway. You could tell where the south ended the north started as the North had no trees on their side. This is what it would have looked like minus the fog!
So, on Monday I booked my ticket back to the UK!!!!! I fly out Friday 28th May and arrive in the UK Saturday 29th May at 8.40 at Manchester - in case you want to arrange a big welcome party at the airport, with banners, flowers and trumpets! Come on, it will have been 360 days since I was last on British soil!
Other big news, KM finally quit!!!!!! With only 66 days left she finally decide to quit. Why she couldn't have done it sooner and made my life easier is another question but the next 66 days should be great without her! Apparently she has another job teaching conversation at a middle school in Gunsan, so I have been trying to find out if any of the weiguks I know are teachers at that school! I pity the students and teachers she will be working with!!!
Wow 66 days! Lots to fit in before then!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
This week after working in O2 Grande for nearly 10 months, I finally got to see inside one of the apartments! One of my adults invited me over for lunch. Or a 3 hour marathon eating session!! We ordered Chinese, had a massive plate of strawberries, ice cream, cookies, this fish bread or bungeonppang chocolate and more!
The apartment was pretty nice but I thought small for a 4 person family. There were 2 bedrooms, a small study, an en suite for the master bedroom, bathroom, open plan living room / kitchen, a sort of loft area and a small rooftop terrace. I guess it is just because I grew up in a 3 bedroomed house, with a front and back garden! It did have some pretty funky gadgets, including a touch screen pad you could use to call other apartments and the lift, so that by the time you leave the apartment and walk to the lift, it is there!
This week I also worked out how much I actually work. My contract is for a 35 hour week. I used to go in at 11 but not start teaching until 2. They fortunately decided this was a waste of time. So now I am in for 24 hours out of my 35 hour contract - yet still get paid for 35. Out of those 24 hours at work, I only actually teach for 15!!
I have also been trying to figure out the date I will come back to the UK. My contract is done May 31st but I finish teaching on May 21st.
I started to think that I may actually miss Korea! It is a pretty easy life here, the money is good, I have my own studio, the job is pretty easy and I enjoy it.
I have a good social life, I have the sushi place that know me, Wow and Joy, the bar that always gives me free stuff. Even the people at the bank know me. I was transferring money and the Bank Manager kept loitering near me obviously wanting to impress me with his English - which he did!
I have been going to the gym about 2 or 3 times a week recently. I have been trying to go in the mornings, as it is quieter and also do the 9 o'clock classes of spinning and yoga. The guy who does the yoga class is really nice and I am sure is telling the class wonderful words of wisdom to improve your health but I obviously don' understand any of it.
The lady who does the spinning is slightly scary and shouts at you if you sit down. She also incorporates these jazzy hand moves along with cycling like a crazy woman, disco lights and ear splitting K-pop. I am not yet brave enough to let go and join in the jazz hands for fear of losing control and falling off!
There is also this loud and I thought slightly obnoxious trainer, who when I did go in the evenings would shout encouragement at me, so that the whole gym would turn round and look at the fat sweaty foreigner - hence why I tend not to go the gym in the evenings anymore!
However I went last night and it just turns out that he loves me and gave me some traditional Korean cake! As much as I hate the gym the instructors are all really nice and do know me and always try and use what little English they do know on me.
However much I complain about Korea, the people here are lovely and life is pretty good. I was thinking about all the things I miss back in the UK. Turns out there wasn't that much! Some types of food, being able to shop for clothes, of course family and friends. It will have been a year since I last set foot on British Soil -the longest amount of time I have not been back before.
I do think that going back to the UK will be a massive culture shock. I will be able to read and understand signs. I will be able to order a meal and know exactly what I will get. I will be able to understand all the channels on the TV. I will be able to sort out my own phone contract/gas bill problems - what a novelty!!
It is so crazy to think that I will have been here for a year soon, it seems to have gone so quickly! 73 days until the end of my contract!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
This weekend was a pretty packed weekend in The Goon!
Friday at work went really well. With my adult class I did a version of 'Call my Bluff' I gave them different definitions of words and they had to guess the right answer. I used words like flibbertigibbet, lollygagging, canoodle and gobsmacked. They really enjoyed it and we had a lot of laughs.
Then with the kids I did games including a version of 'Wheel of Fortune' and the kids loved. It was definitely one of those days where I could definitely say I LOVE TEACHING! Also discovered that bribery and sweets are a total motivator!!
In the evening I tried to get all the new and old teachers together. Not too many newbies turned up but there were about 10 people at my apartment and a couple of new faces I had not met.
Betty was complete tart and was getting love and attention off everyone. I was surprised at how she kept hopping around and wasn't bothered by all the people.
We then headed out to Bar Street met up with some other teachers and then a couple of us headed to noraebang. I LOVE NORAEBANG. I am the woooorst singer but it is just so much funny. Judging by my sore throat the next day, I apparently did a lot of singing/screaming/shouting!
It was packed and actually really good fun! I was surprised at how commercialised it was. They would keep stopping the game, get the cheerleaders to come and and do chants about KCC.
Jeonju won though and a good time was had by all!
We then had a really nice Vietnamese meal and found a really nice bar. It was called Art and Travel or Samsara was slightly hippyish and incensey. The whole place was covered in photos of the couple who owned it and places they had travelled and pictures drawn by people. It had good sangria, wine beer and cocktails and boardgames!
This weekend Danielle and I headed up to Seoul to go to Everland, think the Korean version of Alton Towers combined with Disneyland and Zoo.
Quite a few rides and shows were closed but we still head fun. The T Express was really good and I screamed A LOT. It is Korea's longest, steepest, fastest wooden roller coaster.
There was also a zoo and an 'Animal Wonder Show. Which was actually pretty impressive. It involved a tiger cub, pelicans, monkey's guinea pigs, dogs, parrots, a horse and many others. The funniest part was when the chickens ran across stage and one was so scared/excited/confused it ran into the wall!
At one point the pelican was not doing what it was told and had to be escorted off.
We also saw a seal show which again was pretty impressive. I can't get some of student to behave and these seals knew exactly what they were doing!
In the evening we headed to a comedy show a friend of a friend had put on through Stand up Seoul. There was free wine and food before hand and the show was pretty funny. As it was arranged by foreigners the place was full of foreigners. It is the most foreigners I have been around in almost 10 months!!
After a pretty packed day we headed back to our slightly dodgy love motel!
Well.... things have definitely been shook up at work!
I have a new co-teacher, who is supposed to be replacing KM!! What no more outlandish and crazy stories about KM anymore I hear you gasp.. well hold your horses.....
The new co-teacher seems really nice, she was a tour guide for 7 years, a teacher for 2 and half, speaks English (REALLY well), Korean, Mandarin and Italian and has been to 35 different countries!
I only found out about the new teacher when she walked into my other school asking about the job... the job which neither of I or my other coworker knew about! KM finally told me about it when I asked her. She said she will be getting some experience in a middle school so will be too busy. As she is still tied into her contract, the uni are still paying her and then she is paying the new teacher. However, the new teacher had asked me why KM had quit, so who really knows what is going on.
So her first day at the job was a complete nightmare, as usual KM had not prepared her for anything, told her lies, told her the wrong working times, not ordered text books, not written lists of students as she could not remember their names - Korean or English.
At several times during the day, we had parents either call or come in to complain about KM. It was a nightmare. Neither of us knew what was going on.
Then at the end of the day KM turned up, called the parents, shouted down the phone at them and also had a few arguments with the new teacher. The new teacher had asked me why KM had quit, so I thought she had left but then she turned up. It was all just a big crazy nightmare!!
But on a happier note, at the other school I will only be teaching 4 classes on Wednesday so work 1-6 and 2 classes on Thursday working 2-5!!!!!
Also, one of the other teachers left to go back to New Zealand, so I inherited Betty!
So finally back from Thailand.. be prepared this will be a long one!
Saturday Set off to the airport at 5.30 and got there early than I thought, so had lots of time to kill around Incheon Airport, which is a pretty nice airport, so I didn't mind too much. On the flight to China, I was sitting next to a British guy who had been working in Korea but not liked it and was moving to China to work there. It was nice to chat to an English person for a few hours. I then had a 5 hour lay over at Beijing, and then about 4 hours to Bangkok.
Sommer's flight was due to get in at exactly the same time as mine - 12.45pm.
I rushed through departures to find Sommer in a movie like reunion in slow motion and background music but couldn't find her flight. I then found out that her plane had broken, the flight cancelled and she was still in Japan! They didn't know when she would arrive and gave me a number to call after 9am the next day. The hotel was booked in her name so I jumped in a taxi and hoped that they would let me check in.
Managed to check into the hotel and conked out! It was a really nice hotel called the Lamphu Tree Hotel.
Monday
The Internet was down at the hotel so I couldn't check if Sommer had sent me an email or not. I ventured out for a walk round to find an internet cafe and then started chatting to a tuk tuk driver who took me around for a bit.
I had booked a trip through the hotel to Damnoen Saduak floating market. It was pretty interesting to see but definitely a tourist trap.
Then Sommer finally arrived at 12.45 in the morning!!!!
Tuesday We got picked up at 6am to go and do some Ziplining.
It was sooooo much fun!!
We then got dropped off in Pattaya and checked into our super swanky hotel The Avalon. Because Sommer had been so delayed and the hotel was so nice we decide to stay an extra night here and not head out to the island.
Pattaya itself is a pretty touristy beach resort. It is really well known for its sex industry so there were A LOT of old men by themselves or with young Thai girls. So some parts seemed pretty sleazy.
Wednesday
We went on an Elephant trek!
Thursday
We hung around at the hotel, sat by the pool, went into Pattaya to do some shopping and then headed back to Bangkok. We decided to stay in a super cheap and very basic hotel right on Kosan Road. We did some shopping in the area. I went slightly crazy as to find clothes that fitted me in none boring colours. (Most of the clothes in Korea are pretty dull) and also found sandals to fit me as well!
We then found this amazing vegan/vegetarian place called Ethos. That had ammmmmazing food so we sat and ate A LOT there! We waddled back to the hotel to try and back up all our goodies!
I had booked a min bus to take me to the airport. I had wanted to book it for 9 but as my flight did not leave until 1am, the lady said 10 should be fine. So at 10.30 when the mini bus still had not arrived I started to panic. A little Japanese man ran back to the woman to get our money back and we were going to share a taxi. They both came back and she hailed a taxi and gave the driver our money. We then got stuck in some serious traffic and I didn't get to the airport until 11.45, the fight was supposed to start boarding at 12.15 so I was slightly panicking. Of course the check in desk was the furthest one away, there were massive queues at immigration and then the gate was at the other end of the airport! However the flight was delayed but about 30 minuted so actually made the flight.
I arrived in China to -3c temperature and snow. The airport was in Emergency weather alert and I wasn't sure if I was going to get out. After about an hour delay while they deiced the plane we finally took off. Got back to Seoul and just managed to catch a bus back to Gunsan to get stuck in holiday traffic as it was Independence Day in Korea on Monday!
So finally got back into The Goon at 6.30pm on Saturday evening!
Over all it was a pretty good trip but I am so not used to the touristy thing. I am used to 'Volunteer Vacations' where you are integrated in the local community on programmes with Cross-Cultural Solutions and being part of the community. I hated being a tourist and the fact there were so many scams to try and get money out of you. Some of the taxi and tuk tuk drivers would not take us where we wanted to go unless they took us to gem stores as they got 'free gasoline' If you did that they would charge you 10baht, if not it was about 500 baht or they wouldn't take you at all. Bearing in mind it cost us 300 baht for the 45 minute drive from ther airport and they were asking for 500 baht for a 5 minute drive!
But it was a good trip and great to see Sommer and get some sun!
