Second posting in 3 days!

On Monday we visited a jazz club in nearby Hyehwa, a surprisingly happening district I've never been to before. Cade met the (famous) drummer with the band below on the subway a few days before and had been invited along. It was just like a proper jazz joint ought to be: bare brick walls, candles, cosy. The second band featured a big black American pianist...he looked like someone fresh off the plane from New Orleans but was too much of a jitter for me to get a decent photo. I don't know jazz as well as I'd like, but it sounded pretty good to me. Last night Kiwi Tony invited Irishman Daragh, Georgian Alicia, and myself for dinner with the local policemen that he teaches English. As practice for them, he wanted to invite a variety of different accents to come along, hence the mix of nationalities above. We ate shabu-shabu, a Mongolian-inspired dish, which originated in the 13th century as a way for Genghis Khan to efficiently feed his soldiers. Each person has a pan of boiling water, into which you can throw whatever you fancy from the spread on the table: lots of vegetables and mushrooms, oysters, clams, mussels and octopus, and beef sliced so thinly that it cooked in a few seconds, though Daragh was leaving in for 10 minutes as he wasn't so keen on the bloodiness. Afterwards the oldest Korean man, already pretty drunk from soju, announced it was 'Korean wine time', and we were dragged, almost literally, to an Makgeolli bar that he knew. Makgeolli is a milky-white rice wine that Jake (our designated driver) told us only old people really drink. It's supposed to taste sweet but was quite sour, and the older gent, Peter, ordered two kettles full, most of which he drank himself (although Tony put away his fair share too). Most of the conversation at this time revolved around trying to get Peter to stop calling me 'Lion'. 'Wyan' was about the best we got out of him, but I'm used to that by now...

5 months to go

My contract officially ends in 5 months, at the beginning of July. I have no idea what I will do then, but neither do many other teachers, so at least I'm in good company. I'm certain that the time's just gonna fly by without me noticing, so I'll do try to do my best with the time I have left. The Lunar New Year is coming up soon, and rumour has it we'll be getting a day off work to celebrate, so hopefully we'll be using the long weekend to see some of the rest of Korea, maybe to Seoraksan Mountain on the East Coast, hopefully we can make it down to the South coast port city Busan, too. So the one New Year's resolution I made - to try and take more photos - has failed disastrously: I think I made it about eight days. I'll remake it again at Lunar New Year instead. See how long that lasts. I'm sure it's also been noticed that posts here are generally weekly rather than daily these days. That wasn't a conscious decision, so I don't know if it'll stay that way or not. From tomorrow I'm back on morning/day shift again for the first time in about 5 months, so my routine's gonna be completely flipped anyway, so anything could happen I guess. Right now I'm just focussing on whether I'll remember to get up in the morning. Since Friday was my last graduation for a while, I took my camera along, lest I forget the fun. Also, these Winter camp kids have been here for two weeks, so I got to know them better that you usually can. This last kid shook my hand every single time we crossed paths for two weeks straight. I later found out that he was doing it to everyone else too, so didn't feel quite so special after all. After graduation we went for a few drinks in Suyu with some of the Korean staff. Of course 'a few' swiftly escalated into 'a few tequila shots' (and precisely when that became habit I couldn't tell) so the rest of the night's pretty much a blur. Saturday daytime was mostly spent in recovery, but by nightfall we were ready to head back out was again, as our friend Kane was playing a set at a James Brown tribute night at a bar in Hongdae (the party zone in Seoul). There were around 10 bands, the idea (so far as I could gather) being that each had to play at least one James Brown cover each. Almost without exception all of the bands were quality acts - most were Korean but even the Korean songs were full of funk, I was very impressed. Plus, there were bongos! We didn't discover these until near the end of the night when everyone had started leaving (or was it just before?) but we wasted no time in finding the rhythm. God knows what the bands still trying to perform thought of our accompaniment though. Here's Kane anyhow, he enjoyed it: And here's a short video courtesy of Shawn. No prizes of course as to what we did after the show: But note that this time we tried a luxury Norebang for a change - not that you can tell here. I think luxury just means free percussion and ice cream, but what more could you possibly need?

Weekend

Mary and Christa cooked dinner for me again on Friday night, my only role once again was to provide a moderately-clean room in which to eat, mine being unanimously voted as most-welcomingly decorated out of the three. The stir fry we had was excellent, and the intended main ingredient - the tofu that was forgotten in the fridge - was hardly missed at all. We followed that up with the most unhealthy way to consume strawberries I've ever had the pleasure of encountering... You can't see them here, they're buried under the mountain of ice cream, crushed Oreos, chocolate chunks, banana and maple syrup. Though hey, the banana's healthy too I guess. Forgot about that. That was all washed down by more wine, soju and sake than I really care to mention, so the pictures take a more incriminating turn from here on in, but, well, ok, you can see edited highlights here you must). On Sunday I went with new gal Dayna to visit Shawn and Mel down in Suwon - this is probably the furtherest I've yet been out of Seoul, and even Suwon's not that far. Mel and Shawn live near the yellow crayon, and Suyu is somewhere near the pink. I nearly dropped my camera trying to take this photo and hold the crayons in place at the same time. This the view from their roof. Note the turrets of the wedding castle at the bottom of the picture. Classy. Here is Dayna cutting Shawn's hair. I show this not because it was the highlight of my day, but it's the only picture I have of Dayna, and I figure she deserves to be seen. She's Canadian too, and is fact old friends with Shawn and Mel. And here is Shawn and Mel! After going out for pizza, we had to have a game of Nertz for old time's sake. (a stressful but very fun card game, one of many games we used to regularly play with them). Despite inadvertently flouting the rules (several times) me and Mel were still crushed by the opposition. Next time...

99%

Christa bought me a present this weekend. We'd seen some chocolate in a convenience store Japan that was 99% cocoa (95% cocoa solids and 4% cocoa butter to be precise) which I didn't buy at the time, assuming it to be commonplace. Then we never found it again and I always slightly regretted not trying it at the time. Christa came across a bar on Saturday while visiting friends down in Chungju and remembering my sorrow, bought a bar from me. I guess it tastes just as delicious as you would imagine. Which is probably to say, not at all. I'm not sure what the other 1% is, possibly just some glue to hold the rest of it, as rather as melt in the mouth, it crumbled. It was powdery, and acrid, and left a bitter aftertaste in the back of the throat that could only be washed away with a large glass of milk. Truely, I don't know why they would make this. Maybe for cooking, as it's really not that different from cocoa powder anyway, which would surely be a lot cheaper. I love plain chocolate by the way, but I think 85% will be the threshold from now on.

I try to pretend it's moonlight

My room by night. Bathed as always in the warm glow of the security lights.

Goop.

This is what we've been doing in science class for the past week and a half - it's goop (or oobleck if anyone's interested in the science). It's a non-Newtonian fluid named from a Dr Seuss book, and is fun to squelch in your hands.

Temple Stay

Not one of mine, but here's the official group photo that was taken back in December at the Buddhist temple we visited. I knew it was to be posted on the temple's website but I only recently managed to track it down. The cute little Vietnamese monk in the orange robes really is that short, it's not just that everyone else is standing on a step and he isn't.

And his hat is too big...

I received art supplies from my friends here both for my birthday and for Christmas - apparently I've managed to acquire a reputation for being somewhat arty, despite not having picked up a pencil in months - so I'm back into a drawing phase again at the moment. I'm very slowly working my way through Rob's 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' book, which claims that anyone can be taught to draw if they put their mind to it. I've just hit the nightmare chapter, and am finally being forced to face up to light and shadow. The ever so slightly humpbacked fella on the right is mine, and on the left is Gustav 'goos-tav koor-bay' Courbet's effort. Looking at it from this angle, I'm thinking maybe I haven't finished yet, but Betty (the author) strongly advises against over-working your work so maybe I'll just let it be.

National Treasure No. 1

Sungnyemun, or Namdaemun Gate, literally 'southern gate'. There used to be four great gates in Seoul, though only two remain, and even they are not the original structures. There is little left of the defensive wall (which, according to this wikipedia article, was to keep out tigers, though I'm sure it must've had other uses) that linked them, either. It was designated National Treasure number 1 on December 20, 1962. There are now 307 National Treasures in Korea, of which I have seen at least two. The Koreans also have extensive lists of 'tangible and intangible cultural properties', the latter including many Living National Treasures. As far as I know, I haven't met any of them. Maybe they'll make me one before I leave.

Rabbit

My evening activity for the past week has been paper-folding; I've been trying to perfect an origami rose for ages, and finally, with the help of one of the girls in my class last night, I was able to crack it. Some of the students are really good folders - I've definitely learnt more than I've taught. This is an origami bunny rabbit one of the girls made, alongside a hundred won coin for scale. One of my roses is hiding in the background blur.

Hint: my free dessert was a cup of coffee

Not even one of my resolutions, but I got my hair cut again. I have no classes until 3:30 today so I figured I'd make a token gesture at being productive with my time off. Bonus points if anyone back home can name the restaurant.

Self Portrait

I saw Kiwi Tony leaving the 7-11 with his nightly ice-cream and decided to follow suit. Unseasonably delicious.

Gongi

These are gongi, a little present from my Korean teacher tonight. They're used in a traditional Korean game which may also be called gongi. At least, I think it's traditional. All the kids play it anyway. It seems to be pretty similar to another game that we have back home that I can only ever remember playing with my Mum, which I think is called snobs but the internet will have me call jacks instead. Back me up, ma.

New Year's Resolution

At least one of my New Year's resolutions is gonna be to take more pictures. I'm constantly seeing things I want to snap, but I never have my camera with me. So I'm going to start taking my camera around with me more often, and take at least one picture every day. I'm sure this will last for about a week, but that's not too bad as my resolution life expectancies generally go. And what better way to start than with a nice bowl of the delicious Kimchi that accompanied (well, was one of the many accompaniments to) this evening's galbi (simple but ever-tasty Korean bbq).

New Year's festivities

Sae-hae bok mani badeuseyo! (the meaning is left as an exercise for the reader) This New Year's Eve definitely ranks as one of my better ones. We started out with a heap of sushi in Suyu - and it was actually good sushi, especially compared to the half-frozen mostly chewy slop we choked down last time. Unfortunately, to get the decent stuff we did have to sell out and go to California Roll - previously we were being snobby about it and refusing to go, as some of the varieties they sell - like their salmon and cream cheese roll - barely qualifies as sushi at all - but after a recommendation from Vanessa, we checked it out, and it was indeed pretty good (though in fact we were not keen on the cream cheese one we ended up with). We followed this up with a trip to Dragon Bar, where we're fast becoming regulars, though in was in fact totally dead. Me and Christa were the only ones there until Tony, Robbie and Carla turned up a little while later. After winning and then losing to them at darts (drinks for the winners being the prize) we headed to the City Hall area for the main event. Despite the ten thousand (or was it a hundred thousand?) people expected there last night, we still managed to bump into the other half of the SEV teachers that were out last night (and where did we happen to see them but right by the beverage section of the convenience store that we had all descended on to buy beer). It was a crazy sight to behold. There was a stage with (I'm sure) some famous Korean pop acts performing, but, though we tried our best to sing along, we really didn't know who or what we were listening to. Meanwhile, traditional Korean musical troupes wove their way through the crowds, dancing and banging their drums and cymbals in time, but the real spectacle was the never ending hail of fireworks that went on from the moment we arrived to the time we left two hours later. Street traders were wandering through the square with bundles of Roman candles for sale. A lifetimes' worth of correct firework protocol instantly forgotten, we were soon twirling the firecrackers around our heads as the Koreans were. Children barely taller than the candles were long were flailing them around like we might a sparkler back home! Quite amazing, yet as far as I know nobody got hurt. Try and spot the cute little boy jumping for joy at the tail end of the video... At midnight, the old Boshingak bell tolled 33 times, and what felt like a million fireworks were simultaneously set off - I'm sure it was quite a sight, but my eyes filled with ash and sulphur as they were, it was hard to tell. Suddenly Tony and his umbrella didn't look quite so ridiculous. After this the crowd very swiftly dissipated, and we followed suit. The rest of the night reads much like a typical night out in Seoul - many more drinks were had back at the Dragon Bar, there was lots of bad singing, and we finally made it home just two hours shy of sunrise - it's apparently a Korean tradition to get to watch the first one of a new year, but it was never gonna happen. Maybe next year.