A Year in Korea

Melbourne

2007-08-22T17:15:00.000+09:00

Finally a few photos from Melbourne. Although I am on the internet everyday, it's been difficult to find anywhere to upload photos. I usually use the computers in the state library, because they're free (although you're suppose to limit your use to 15 minutes, ssh...), but they don't seem to like me up or down-loading stuff, and when I finally shelled out the dollars to go in a PC bang, the connection was slow so I still didn't get many up. Well, this is Melbourne, part of the central business district, at night, obviously. The river is the Yarra river. I'm not quite on the coast, but it isn't far away. This is the beach at St. kilda, a short tram ride away. I went here for the day with Michael, a german guy from my hostel. The water was freezing and it was overcast for most of the day, so it reminded me of home, in a nice way. This is the State Library of Victoria, where I am now in fact. Indeed, where I can be found most days at some point. This picture only has significance in that it's the last photo I took before dropping my trusty old Canon to its sudden end. Not worth dying for really. And this is my new Canon! Woo, yes, it's much like the old one but with a bigger screen... The view from my hostel roof, where I have spent no time other than the one trip I took to go see what was up there and take this picture. This, although perhaps not the best shot I could've chosen to display the local flora (I saw no fauna), is part of the Dandenong range national park, the first time (of two times) that I've been outside of the city. More here for the curious (ma, you've already seen 'em all).

10 Memories of Korea that make me feel warm and fuzzy inside

2007-08-19T13:49:00.001+09:00

1 Dinners in my room with Christa and Mary. I should say cooked by Christa and Mary, my job being to supply us with tableclothes stolen from the theatre classroom and clean up the carnage afterwards. With a one-hob kitchen it was tricky, but we always made it work. Wine, soju, sake, and dancing into the wee hours afterwards. I never expected to enjoy Christmas day as much as I did, being so far from home and having to work.

2 Salsa - the classes me and Emma gave up in the dance studio on Sunday nights, to our little band of faithful students, and the nights at Bahia when we put them into practice, particularly Emma's leaving night, after all the locals had cleaned out at the sight of us, and the barman supplied us with cowbells and bongos.

3 Chuseok Japan trip with Christa and Amy. In particular our food crawls - I'm thinking the sushi and okonomiyaki nights - and drinking copious amounts of sake and plum wine in our lodges and laughing for no reason.

4 Singing, in many places: In the norae bangs any night of the week of course; I also have fond memories of the karaoke night we stumbled upon at a bar down the road, that we meant to go back to and now never will, where every table had to sing one song each. Christa, Rob and I sang All I want for Christmas, beautifully but in three different keys. I also have to include Rob and I gatecrashing and singing Radiohead's Creep at a Korean wedding reception.

5 Playing cards and dice over at Shawn and Mel's place. Nertz, farkel, Manatoba Farmers. By the time they left to go to Suwon, it had somehow grown into a nightly thing, though I only went over a handful of times. This was during mine and Emma's period of neverending nightshift. I don't remember why I didn't go more often.

6 Poker nights, every Wednesday in the pool class. We started out hosting it in our alternate rooms, but it soon grew to popular for that. I must've won three times in all the time we played. Of course, since the buy-in amounted to less than three pounds, it was never any great loss.

7 Korean lesson with Christa, and Mary too, at the end. It's quite likely that I'll have forgotten half of what I learned when I get home, and I'll rarely have need for the rest when back home, but I'll never regret giving it a try.

8 Although I think Japan tops the list of places I visited, so far anyway, I can't leave out the rest - Vietnam, Thailand, Gyeongju and the other areas of Korea I've visited. I think I could be persuaded to leave Cambodia out of the list.

9 I don't know for sure why I feel compelled to include this - perhaps just because I'd not had a bath for the best part of six months - and I only did it properly the one time last year, but I'll certainly never forget the (naked) Korean bath-house.

10 Seeing Muse live for the first time at Jamsil gymnasium. They were awesome. Best live band ever. Incidentally, I saw them again recently at Pentaport Rock Festival, Incheon, but the second time didn't compare to the first (they were an hour late and I, by choice, was half a mile away).

Disclaimer: this list is neither exhaustive nor definitive, but the fact that these things are the first that came to mind must mean something. Notice the absence of references to work, teaching, and children in the list.

Thailand photos

2007-08-14T16:40:00.001+09:00

G'day. Since I've been using a public computer, I've been having a hell of a time trying to upload some photos, but I finally cracked it. I've had to put them up on flickr though, as blogger was taking too long and don't even get me started on facebook.

I've uploaded three sets today. The first, requested by young Katie of Barnet, is a bunch of shots mostly if not all taken by Kd, of the mangroves we paddles through when we rented a kayak for the afternoon near Krabi. The monkeys are long-tailed macaques, also known as crab-eating macaques, though they ate the pineapple we brought them with relish. The thing that looks like a crocodile is in fact a harmless monitor lizard.

Next, we have some pics from Koh Phi Phi. I haven't labelled them well as flickr is now being slow too, but they include some shots of one of the beautiful sunsets we saw there, and the day trip we took to The Beach beach (among other places) with young Ryan of Devon who we hung around with for a while on the island. In fact, most of these photos are Kd's too, as she had a waterproof case for her camera and I did not, so I didn't take mine out on the longboat with us. The sunset photos are mine though.

The third is the set promised weeks ago: a random yet representative sampling of my wildlife photos from Thailand and Cambodia (mostly the former, only the bugs are Cambodian).

Australia!

2007-08-03T09:35:00.001+09:00

Hey, have arrived at accomodation in Melbourne. Weather is clear and refreshing! Backpackers place ok I think, haven't met other room-mates yet (they're asleep). Have 10 minutes free internet so gotta be quick! Don't know what I'm gonna do now, probably just go wander around the city for a while. Flight was ok, though didn't sleep much as usual - oh! somehow found myself in first class on Seoul-Tokyo leg, real luxury, sadly not on the Tokyo-Melbourne bit though! Later!

Thailand and Cambodia

2007-07-31T11:14:00.000+09:00

I have around 1500 pictures from the past month's travels (though approximately 95% of them are photos of Cambodia's temples) - I've ~~randomly selected~~ carefully deliberated over the matter and chosen a few to share... We stayed for the first few days on Koh Samet, where we had arranged to meet Alicia. She'd been planning to come with us and then go on to Ghana to do some voluntary work for a month, but due to massive incompetency at the Ghanaian embassy in Seoul as she was trying to sort out her Visa, she never made it. After learning that Alicia wouldn't be joining us until Cambodia (a best-case scenario), we left Koh Samet (and the most beautiful sand I've ever set foot on) for Ayuthaya. We there only for one whole day, and it was a scorcher. We hired bikes for the day, and explored the ruins there. Interesting as they were, they pale into comparison against Cambodia's wats, hence no picture. A ferry, a train, a bus, a ship and a short taxi later, and we reach Koh Pha Ngan. I miss living on the beach. I cut my knee on the coral while snorkeling; still waiting to see if it's gonna scar or not. And I forgot to put in my contacts before the dive so I couldn't see a damn thing anyway. Oh, so this is the longboat we hired for the day when we went snorkeling. We went a saw a waterfall too, but for most of the time we lazed on the beach, read a little, and swam. Oh, and was around this time that we were playing Rummy obsessively. You can't really tell here, but these crazy fire twirlers are children! I swear one of them was no older than six or seven, and non of them can have been more than 12. They were amazing, but it was bizarre to see thre parents just sit back and watch them do it. They were foreign kids by the way, not Thai. Kd's crazy hair on the windswept boat trip from Koh Pha Ngan to Koh Tao (Koh means island). Drunken crazy golf. Don't let the picture fool you, this was the only exciting whole they had. Kd cheated. Afterwards we played old-school 10 pin bowling; there was a guy at the bottom picking up the pins and throwing the bowl back down to our end. Kayaking near Krabi. We were taken through the mangroves where we boarded by a troupe of monkeys in search of food. We also saw what Kd at first took to be alligators, but were in fact monitor lizards. I'll put some more pictures up of all the wildlife we saw later. The only time we really got rained on the entire time - not bad considering we supposedly went in the middle of monsoon season. We're on an elephant ride here. I think. Another rather aggressive gang of monkeys we met on the beach. At the mere mention of bananas they went straight for Kd's bag, and she was in no mood to argue. One of them stole a tube of Pringles from a tourist and sat up in the tree munching his way through them. While the crowd was watching this, a rogue monkey made his way along the beach, searching everyone's abandoned bags. Still a fair bit of tsunami damage around. Koh Phi Phi in particular has lots of building work going on. More snorkelling at koh Phi Phi, and I still look pretty pasty here. I don't know exactly when my tan finally kicked in, but I guess it hadn't yet. Koh Phi Phi again, this is The Beach beach, as in, the Leo Dicaprio movie. You can see why they picked it (although it could do with somebody picking all the trash out of the water). The view from our bungalow on Phi Phi wasn't bad. I must've taken a hundred pictures of this one sunrise. Never seen anything like it. Just stunning. And then on to Cambodia. I have whole memory cards with nothing but photos of the temples in Seim Reap. We bought the three-day pass, so we saw a lot. this here is the famous one, Angkor Wat, built in the early 12th century. It's huge, and very well preserved. We split up soon after getting there, and had failed to make a plan for meeting up again. It took us hours to find each other again. By the time we got to Cambodia we'd been joined by Alicia, finally, and Kd's friend Gema, also a teacher in Korea. I've forgotten the names of most of the wats we visited already. I call this one 'the one you go up to watch the sunrise'. And this one is 'the one that has been left to the trees'. Note tiny Kd hugging the root at the bottom. There's another abandoned wat, which the guidebook says makes the one above look like somebody just forgot to mow the lawn; we really wanted to go to it, but it was just too far. Alicia! And I at 'the wat with the Greek-looking bit of architecture'. It's so sad to see kids on the streets all day desperate to get money out of tourists. Some have books or crafts to sell - the gang here finally broke Kd, she bought six scarves off them - others try to convince you to take a photo of them for money, and some just beg. I don't even know what this is. Let's say the Royal Palace. It's in Phnom Penh, the capital. Phnom Penh was not the best climax for our vacation to be honest - though it was interesting, the genocide prison/museum, and the killing fields, put together with poor Alicia getting her bagged snatched, doesn't really count as ending on a high...

Itinerary

2007-06-30T14:00:00.000+09:00

I should be packing, but I don't know where to start, so I've come to procrastinate instead. I hate packing. I have to split my stuff into 5 categories: what I want to send home; what I want to take to Thailand; what I don't need for Thailand but I might want for Australia; what I can throw away; and what I don't want for myself by somebody else might want. I don't fly until Tuesday though, so it's not as urgent as it is for some. Kane and Eva are packing right now, as they leave tonight. I'm sure others are doing the same. I've kind of lost track of who's staying on for another year and who's leaving right now. There's also those like Christa who started a little later so don't finish for another month or so. Yesterday was a little strange. I was expecting it to be pretty fun, if a little sad, being the last day for many of us, but due to some rather unpleasant altercations that happened recently, there was an uncomfortable vibe in the office yesterday. For a bunch of people who've had to live and work and play together for a year, we've had remarkably few bust-ups. I guess people are feeling less inclined to hold back now that we're mostly going to be going our separate ways soon. 3 hours have past since I started writing this - I've spent most of the day round at Kane and Eva's while they've been packing - so it's clear I'm not going to get anything of my own sorted today. Here's my travel itinerary: July 3rd: Seoul - Bangkok (Thailand) July 21st: Bangkok - Phnom Penh (Cambodia) July 28th: Phnom Penh - Bangkok - Seoul Early August: Seoul - Australia (With a couple of weeks in: New Zealand) Sometime before Christmas: Australia - home It's a little vague in spots. We'll be in southern Thailand as Kd and Alicia have both done the north before, and since I haven't even looked at the travel books, I have no opinion either way. I don't know what's going on in Cambodia yet. Me and Kd are flying on Tuesday, with Alicia hopefully joing us on Thursday (she hasn't booked tickets still as she's been trying to organise a later trip to Ghana at the same time). I'll be flying back to Seoul solo, while the girls go on to Vietnam, and then me and Christa are going to Australia. Again, not exactly sure about all the arrangements there, although we will be visiting our friend Beth and staying at her parent's house for a while, and we're gonna try and hunt down Kane and Eva too, though they haven't yet decided what continent they want to live on.

Maintenance

2007-06-29T19:22:00.000+09:00

I'm in the middle of rearranging the site in preparation for my coming travels to South-East Asia and Australia, so please pardon the mess. Is anybody still out there?

30 days

2007-06-01T20:22:00.000+09:00

Actually less than that as the 29th is my last working day. Jeepers. Not long. Just thought I'd say hi really...I'm going to party soon but nobody else is ready just yet, so rather than start watching another episode of Desperate Housewives (I've totally gone over my quota for the week already), I figured I'd check here instead. Hi ma. Predictably, I still don't know what I'll be doing 31 days from now. The vague plan - and I'd like to stress again that 'plan' is far too strong a word for what I have going on, implying as it does notions of organisation and deliberation - involves my tagging along with a couple of friends to Cambodia for a week or so, then possibly cluelessly wandering around Thailand for an undetermined time, by myself, before finally meeting up with Christa somewhere down under, as her contract doesn't finish until a month later than ours. As soon as I know more, I'll let you know. Or within a matter of weeks. I'll let you know eventually anyway.

May

2007-05-26T18:46:00.000+09:00

Ok. Sorry. I've been...uh...busy. Here's a little of what I've been up to over the last month... As a token of appreciation for our giving some of the national volleyball team a refresher's class in English, the school received a bunch of tickets to a series of international games against Japan held one weekend at the Olympic stadium (Seoul hosted the summer games in '88). We kicked ass, though I didn't understand what was going on much of the time. Christa didn't go as she reckons it's a girlie sport, but there were plenty of my fellow teachers there who tried their best to hammer the rules into my head. Christa, Mary, Vanessa and I went to Chuncheon (known as the city of lakes) in the last week of April as we were all blessed with a long weekend. This is the place we found to stay on the first night. We had two TVs, though only one worked, while the fan and AC did not. We had no window, and the bathroom smelled of hotdogs. And there were spider's webs you could get lost in. Oh, and the bath was brown with mould, but that didn't matter as there was no hot water to have a bath with anyway. We got tandems again, and me and Christa spent quite a while racing two young kids on their own bikes along a footpath by one of the lakes while Vanessa and Mary went swanning around in a paddle-boat. The rental dude charged us for a second hour as we were five minutes late back, and we were sorely tempted to see how far we could get the bike during our second hour and just dump it. Of course we didn't. Chuncheon is famous for a dish called dakgalbi, which I shall be attempting to make when I have access to a decent kitchen again (I have the recipe books now) - it's a fiery mix of chicken (dak), sweet potato, veggies and spice and rice. We ate it twice while we were there, so poor vegetarian Vanessa was forced to forage for food on her own on a few occasions. This shot's taken during a walk near the Soyang River Dam - the largest sand gravel dam in East Asia - on a real scorcher of a day. And I'd left my sunglasses in a cab the day before... Some friendly Koreans shared their makkoli with us. I don't like makkoli. It's a sweet-sour milky rice wine that old Korean men drink a lot of. This guy gave a 'reluctant' Mary three shots of the stuff before she conceded that it was indeed mucho mashissoyo (delicious). This waterfall was our reward for hiking up the trail. Actually there was plenty more to see than this, including a series of temples, and at least one other pond, but this was the most photogenic. We saw a lizard. On our first evening - I'm totally out of chronological order here - we took a pleasant stroll around Nami island, where apparently some famous Korea soap opera and/or movie was filmed. The highlight has to be the flock of apparently wild ostriches we came across. If these beasts aren't the at least second cousins to Spielberg's velociraptor's I'll be damned. Though admittedly they seemed harmless enough, they freaked me out nonetheless - unlike Christa who was running straight at them to see what kind of reaction she could get. May 5th is celebrated, principally in the USA, as Cinco de Mayo (literally, "the fifth of May" in Spanish) in honour of Mexican heritage and pride. Not wanting to be left out, American Heidi invited us all out to a join in the festivities at a Mexican restaurant (natch) in Itaewan. Hopefully the sound will be in sync with the video. The last few I've tried importing from youtube have been out by a few seconds, not sure why. Summer is officially here now. This was a few weeks ago when we were playing badminton, frisbee and bongos up by the pool - which alas, I'm probably unlikely to see 'filled' again while I'm still here. This is the formerly-stray cat, now kindly adopted by a friend of our head-teacher Beth, which caused a rather dramatic and semi-public spat between several residents of the campus (long story, not for today...) Last weekend we went into the mountains and ate this pig for Kane's birthday. We did not cook it on this fire, but we did roast marshmallows. See? Oh yeah, and they had a bunch of cats, either in cages, or tied up like this one. They seemed in decent enough condition, but we still very tempted to free them. Frances, who has been to this spot before, told us that there used to be a monkey too, but there was no trace of it anymore. Last week was Buddha's 2545th birthday, and each year in Seoul there is a huge festival to celebrate. I haven't seen so many foreigner's (by which I mean people that look like me) in a long time (not counting the pig thing above (at which I met the first Welshman I've seen in Korea)). Neither have I seen, or indeed imagined that I would ever see, quite so many lotus lanterns in one day. Pretty... Here's my contribution. There's a special lantern-making competition for the foreigners, which a bunch of us took part in. Somehow, my beauty was overlooked, while our own Tony and Christa both took home prizes for their efforts. To be fair, my effort is a disgrace when seen up close, though it is now hanging proudly inside my doorway for visitors to bash their head against in admiration. And lastly, not the highlight of a day, but certainly a memorable point: we finally tried these... Korean silkworm larvae. They were chewy, but largely unremarkable. I did need a drink afterwards to wash the bits out of my teeth, but they were certainly no worse in taste than the grasshoppers we ate at the Christmas party. We also scored a free sample of the...well, I actually don't know what they are, but there's something that looks not unlike a winkle that you're supposed to eat with a toothpick. I didn't get a picture but it's a very common snack so I'm sure I'll get the chance sometime. They tasted like sand. The culmination of the festival is a grand parade down the streets near one of the largest temples. Here's a short peek at the fun...

Puppies!

2007-04-22T11:11:00.000+09:00

Letters

2007-04-18T16:59:00.000+09:00

I was teaching magic last week, so I lots of the kids wrote me mail in post office class. I always get a larger stash in my mailbox when I'm teaching magic or one of the other more fun classes. It's more fun for them anyway - it can be quite draining to teach over and over, but it's rumoured that we'll have a children's magician coming at the end of the month to teach a couple of us some new tricks. I'm so excited! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To: Ryan magician Hi! How are you? I'm finde magic show is good! very good! card magic show amazing. good! "wow" Abrycatabry good! bey bey Ryan Abrycatabry! So cute. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Teacher's magic was really amazing. Why don't you be a global magician? I want see that again. Teacher have nice ability of magic and make us fun. Thank you for teach English to us and show nice magic. Thank you very much. Global magician. That's totally what my new career's gonna be. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Ryan Hae my name is james How are you? I am 10 nears ar I like SEV [Seoul English Village] I want to cone again My favorite teacher is It is very fun by by by james... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear: Ryan Hi! teacher. my name is Tim. How old are you? I'm 13 year's old. please give me a magic rabbiet. teacher! the magic is very good. I like magic. I think you are very kind. Good Bye teacher. Korean kids love magic. Some of them go to magic schools - occasionally I've even managed to get through a whole class without needing to perform a single trick myself! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Ryan Hi! i'm James Jino Be 'ABracadabbra' gngogilW. Ji-cu-cu gom co HoBnin-o-~~six~~ two seven nu-n four u - I one fourign James u gngni m At least, I think that's what he wrote. It's hard to tell where one word ends and the next begins. Maybe he's writing in code. He spells his name 'Jamts' on the envelope, but he does gets bonus points for drawing a picture of me shooting thunderbolts from my fingertips. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Ryan I like magic. Do you like magic? Your magic is very fun! It is good! I like this!!! -> Abracadabra~ Ho Ho Ho You are a tall and Handsome. You are a very very good man. Always nice to hear. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where all my time goes

2007-04-16T18:14:00.000+09:00

I am, like millions of other wasted souls out there, seriously addicted to the Internet. I can easier squander two hours or more doing nothing other than randomly surfing. You'd at least hope that in doing so much reading every day, I would at least be learning a hell of a lot. But the truth is, half of the time I'm not convinced I even remember what I've been looking at. It just goes in one..um...eye...and out the other. I thought it might be interesting to check out a random sample of my surfing history, so below is a list of every 10th page I've visited for the last two days. Let's see what junk I've been looking at. 1 The chocolate connoisseur's website, fair enough I do like chocolate. I was looking at the reviews of their highest rate bars. I might order some, but the cost of shipping here is twice as much as the chocolate. 2 Not a photo of a dead man in Phoenix, by a photographer who keeps a blog detailing pictures that he wishes he had taken, and opportunities missed. 3 Another one, not of two guys having a fight over a hat. 4 kottke.org - the starting point of many a pointless surfing session. 5 The page editor of Blogger. 6 Blogger log in. 7 A torrent search for Santana - which I ended up not downloading 8 An Amazon review for Yo La Tengo - which I did end up downloading and am listening to now. 9 A google search for a band called Hotel Lights; a song by them which I'd never heard before came onto my itunes and I wanted to know who they were (the drummer used to be in Ben Folds Five). 10 A message board for Disturbia, a new PG13 movie based on Hitchcock's Rear Window. 11 Google news 12 Notes for an upcoming Linguistics and cognitive science lecture. 13 Searching for an old episode of Buffy to watch online while I wait for Christa to get her ass out of bed so we go out for pizza as planned. 14 Before Buffy I had been looking for a movie. 15 I don't know how I got onto this, but I ended up reading all about the American (and Canadian) fraternity and soriety system. 16 The Alexander Technique - since my posture sucks and I was after some tips to improve it. Which I didn't find here. 17 & 18 The Wikipedia articles on press ups and sit ups - I've decided I need to start doing more (ie. some) exercise, so I naturally had to research the matter first. 19 & 20 A couple of blogs about the Korean language. 21 A news article on the massive damage done to coral reef after a recent Indonesian earthquake. 22 Doug's Concert Crisis - I can only imagine I chanced upon this via Wikipedia's 'random article' button, as I have no idea what it is. 23 A site about Vietnam - which I don't remember seeing before. 24 An finally, an email from one of the kids that was here last week, Ken:

Teacher!!

What is Margaret e-mail?

Sorry!! more e-mail....sorry~!!

Good bye~!

(And spookily, he's just emailed me again this very second). Anyway, point is that too much time is wasted unproductively. So new resolutions (although shouldn't call them that as bound to jinx it) are: less internet, and to make time every day for a minimum of 10 minutes exercise, a little art, even if only a quick sketch or doodle, and I'm gonna start taking a daily photo again. I'm not promising a daily blog, but I will attempt go for at least one weekly entry. And it's 22:37 pm, and I haven't done any of this yet, so gotta go!

Vietnam closure!

2007-04-11T18:35:00.000+09:00

A non-random selection of mine and Christa's photos from Vietnam (I still haven't managed to recover mine but you never know). In Hanoi and Sapa we were continually besieged by street traders trying to flog us their wares; I thought we might get away from it at Halong Bay, since we were onboard a boat most of the time, but no: they just sail right up alongside. She had Oreos too, but I resisted. Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi. We're sitting out the back of a restaurant in drinking whiskey and smoking cigars (sharing a cigar actually, as the smoke goes right to my head, and it always makes Christa hack and gasp like she's never tried it before, so one's always enough!) We didn't get much sleep some nights. The night-trains in particular, while a fun experience, are not really designed for sleeping. Well, no, I guess they are, but it was way too hot and bumpy to get much done. On Thursday morning as we were eating our breakfast in Hanoi we were plunged into darkness as part of a rolling blackout that lasted for most of the day in our district. Apparently it's fairly common, and is linked to low rainfall. Of course we didn't mind this as everyone knows blackouts are cool, but I wouldn't like to have to live somewhere where it's this common. Christa on-board the night train. I now realise that these photos are in reverse-chronological order. Deal with it. She's sad because we bought some peanut M&Ms and they turned out to be all melty and congealed. We also got these tasty dried fruits. I do love me some fructification. Aah no, this is what I really love. We ate some much fresh pineapple all week - and mango, and dragon fruits and other exciting delicacies - that my digestive system went into shock upon our return to Korea and refused to process the cafeteria food that I tried to foist upon it again. It's taken nearly two weeks to acclimatise back to my usual sad diet again. Cute Vietnamese kids at Halong Bay (okay, so these photos are in no coherent order at all). We tried ramming some with our kayak but got yelled at by their parents. Oh, speaking of kayaks. I'd never done this before and was convinced Christa was gonna have us over at any minute with all her attempts to stray away form the pack into random caves. I was having done of it, to her frustration! Our course stayed straight and true with me at the helm. I later discovered that it's actually much easier than I ever thought it was to stay afloat in salt-water. Have I really never swum in the sea before? Guess not. Nobody was gonna but Christa insisted, then I followed her, and then everybody else followed suit, including sweet Vietnamese lass Hnung, who dove in fully clothed. It was cold. Got bitten by sea-lice. Christa and Hnung sharing a moment. Hnung, whose name is pronounced something close to 'Hune' kept spelling her name for us, as though it would make a scrap of difference. We never did really master it. The Santa Maria. Back in Halong with a few hours to kill, Christa suggested going for a foot massage as we'd seen a string of massage parlours earlier in the week. Although it was officially just a foot massage, they managed to incorporate our hands, arms, legs, backs and heads into the routine. It was lovely, and only slightly marred by my oh-so-professional masseuse's giggles at what are (in Asia) my comically hairy legs. By the end of the hour the two of us couldn't even look at each other: every time I looked at her she would start laughing hysterically, and I couldn't help laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation either. This is the restaurant at the eco-place we stayed at in Sapa. It was a gorgeous location. So peaceful and remote. We loved it. Thanks to Katie for the recommendation. Here's a rice terrace. For now, my photos of the local tribes-people and the shots I took on our treks remains stranded on the damaged memory card, does the footage of us getting motorcycle rides back to base along the narrow mountain 'roads'. Tall buildings in Hanoi. Land is expensive, so they build tall. And to save money often only one or two sides of the building will be painted, the others left as blank concrete. There's some pretty architecture to be seen in Vietnam thanks to the old colonial French influence. My faithful poncho. It didn't rain too much except in Hanoi, where I do believe it's always raining. I haggled aggressively with a woman on the street for this, and it probably only cost a few pence. By the end of the week, we'd both got pretty tired of constantly bartering so ended up paying whatever price was quoted first most of the time - it's not like we couldn't afford it as everything was really cheap. We did not want to come home.

Halong Bay

2007-03-29T19:01:00.000+09:00

Hello there. I've been a bit fluey this week, hence the delay in updating the site (not that I need an excuse really). At least, I think it's flu. I seem to have a different set of symptoms every day. Tuesday was chills, yesterday was a day-long headache, and today it's more of an all-over bone ache. Whatever's infected me wants to keep me on my toes. Also, I recently got hold of a few seasons of 24, so I've literally be unable to pull myself away from the screen. If you're are fan, you'll understand. And now I have finally gotten around to writing, I don't have long as I have to go to Korean class in half and hour (although bed would be preferable right now), so I'm gonna make it a brief (or at least as brief as I'm capable of) photo-heavy post. I still haven't managed to recover anything from my camera's memory card, despite having run half a dozen data rescue programs on it already. One of them spent 8 hours analysing the blasted thing and still didn't turn up anything of worth. The photos taken on Christa's camera are better than mine, as she has the ones of us kayaking and swimming in the bay - I didn't want to get my camera wet so we took hers out with us instead. It was mostly cloudy as you can see, although we were blessed with a few glorious hours late Friday afternoon, and we could even see some stars in the evening, though not as many as I was hoping for. I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining though, because as we were up on the deck after our boat had anchored, laying in the semi-dark sipping our wine, smoking our cigars and trying to decide what animals the islands around us looked like...it was bliss. We could've happily stayed there for ever I think. This is sunset, kinda. Anyway, it's now 11:30pm (just got back from class), so we'll call this one a preview and I'll get back to you when I've got me copies of Christa's pics.

Vietnam

2007-03-26T20:50:00.000+09:00

Preface Vietnam was fantastic. Christa agrees that it was even better than our Japan trip, and that was pretty damn great, too. We spent the first day in Hanoi, then rode the overnight train west to Sapa, where we stayed an all-too-short couple of days, then back to Hanoi, before going all the way to Halong Bay on the East Coast. The week before we left, I bought a brand new 2 gigabyte memory card at Yongsan electronics market in Seoul. On Wednesday evening, shortly after taking my 750th photo, the card froze up. The son of a bitch wouldn't let me take any more pictures, or review any that I had already taken. Naming Error. Naming Error. Naming Error. I'm still semi-hopeful that I'll be able to recover them (while Christa is in flat-out denial at the idea that they may be lost) but need a bit of technical wizardry which I've not been able to lay my hands on yet. Christa took some photos, of course, but not that many, as generally she relies on me, seeing as my camera is better, and she knows that whatever she takes a picture of, I'm just gonna take 5 more of from different angles anyway. With all this in mind, I'm gonna start from the end and work backwards, with the hope that I'll have had some luck with the photos by the time I get back to Wednesday. So, without further ado. Sunday We arrived back at the Village at about 8:30am yesterday morning. There's only a 2 hour time difference between here and Vietnam, but our flight had left at 0:45am, and I can never really get comfortable another to sleep for long in the tiny aeroplane seats, so I was pretty shattered. I was actually getting a little giddy from exhaustion when we did arrive home, and didn't think I'd need to sleep for long. Planning to get up again for lunch, I went to bed at 9am. I woke up again at 8:08pm feeling refreshed and slightly confused. Saturday After lunch we left the tranquillity of Halong Bay for the chaos of Hanoi once more. The traffic around the Old Quarter where most of the tourism is based is crazy. Everybody and their Grandmother travels by motorcycle, and it's not at all unusual to see three or four people on one bike. Our guidebook testifies to somebody witnessing seven passengers on one bike, and I totally believe it. Traffic lights and pedestrian crossings are rare, so crossing the street requires a definite strategy. Ours was to walk slowly enough that any oncoming traffic could avoid us, rather than the other way around. Panic and try to run across and you're toast. We had five hours to kill before we were due to leave for the airport, and since this was to be our third stint in the city, there wasn't all that much left that we wanted to do, so after a final bit of souvenir shopping, we decided to partake in our favourite pastime, that which we were doing, oh, about 97% of the time last week: we went for something to eat. Hanh (almost pronounced 'Hi') - our guide,at Halong Bay - had recommended two dishes that we were not to leave Hanoi without trying. Indeed, if we didn't try them, then we hadn't really been to Vietnam at all (at least so says the New York Times Hanh was quoting). The restaurant gave us the menu: We decided to go with the fish. With only the one dish on the menu, I expected they'd make a good job of it, and they certainly did. I'd love to defend Korean food, and there many dishes I love and will miss when I leave, but it can't really hold a candle to that of its neighbours. Vietnamese food is so fresh and varied, whereas Korean is usually pickled or fermented, and tends to rely on the same few core ingredients (pepper paste, soybean paste, pork, kimchi). I don't think I've seen a fresh herb since coming to Korea. Also, not that I'm endorsing French Colonialism, but it did leave the Vietnamese with a sound understanding of how to bake, unlike the Koreans, whose best efforts at bread and cakes mostly come out of the oven already tasting two weeks old. Anyway, the fish, with peanuts, fish oil, butter, and a handful of different herbs, was delicious. The place was so popular that we were practically being ushered out of the door to make room for the next guests while I was still drinking my beer. Stuffed as we were, we still had one item left on our list: Bún Chả. Hanh had said it was untranslatable into English, while our waitress' best attempt to describe it was 'green pork'. Put in such seductive terms, how could we say no? It was plainly just meatballs with dill (those people really love their dill), and we actually had eaten it a few days before, only we hadn't learned the Vietnamese name for it. And it was good, though far from the best we ate that week. I may write to the NY Times and tell them to get out more. The banana smoothie I drank with the meal was far more memorable! And sadly, with that final meal inside us, we waddled back to the hotel to await our taxi, and homeward bound we were.

Cursed

2007-03-15T22:54:00.000+09:00

Bloody typical. It was mid-30s and sunny earlier this week! In any case, me and Christa are off to Vietnam on Saturday morning. We'll be back very early next Sunday, and I'll be here with a full report...um, well, we'll cross our fingers and say...sometime that week...

Muse!

2007-03-08T23:22:00.000+09:00

Were awesome. You really can't tell in the following videos, but they were. In fact, all you can really hear is the crowd singing and clapping (it took me ages to figure out the rhythm we were supposed to be clapping in the last video because I was messing with my camera instead of paying attention to Matt!) but the sound was excellent. They deserve all of their many awards. My seat wasn't the best, I was kinda far back (but Chamsil gymnasium isn't huge so it didn't really matter) and I was worried that I was gonna stiffen up since I arrived an hour before the band was due to start and they didn't appear until another 45 minutes after that, but once they did come on I was totally unaware of time passing, I could've stayed there for hours... They rocked. The energy! The music! The noise!

Jejudone

2007-03-08T18:45:00.000+09:00

According to legend, Jejudo is an island inhabited by 18000 gods. Now I don't know exactly what we did that ticked them off, but it seems that every last one of those sons of bitches was out to ruin our vacation. Maybe I exaggerate. It wasn't all bad. The day we flew down happened to be the first full moon after the lunar new year so there had been a three-day fire festival going on (Jeongwol Daeboreum Fire Festival), which we just arrived in time to see the climax of. We wouldn't have known anything about it, except Dayna's Canadian friend Troy has been working on the island for the last couple of months, and coincidentally he'd bought himself a car just the day before we arrived, so he generously battled his way through the gridlock surrounding the event to come and get us. Unfortunately we'd already missed the pig-catching, pony-fighting and ploughing demonstrations, but we did get to see the main spectacle, when a large hill/small mountain is set ablaze - in recognition of the traditional method of insect extermination which may, I'm not sure, still go on): Here's a video: Saturday was in fact a beautiful day - it was sunny, it was warm, it was everything we had been promised: But it did not last. Sunday saw torrential rain all day long. If it hadn't been for Troy and his wonderful car, I don't what we'd have done. As it was, we made it round the museums of sex and chocolate (Jeju is the place for honeymooners in Korea, as typically they don't get much time off work so can't go far, so many of the tourist spots are designed to get them in the mood), a botanical garden (am I the only one who thought pineapples grew on trees?), and some caves which the Japanese used to hide bits of submarine back in the day. Here's Tinky Winky at the Chocolate Museum, where we did not get free samples! Don't go there! There wasn't even much to buy at the shop. Boo! Where Sunday was wet but humid, Monday was frigid but dry, which is lucky since mine and Dayna's umbrellas had both snapped already. Unfortunately the wind was still blowing hard, meaning that our plans to visit Udo (Cow Island) had to be scrapped as the ferries weren't running. Udo is famed for it's aging population of female divers - they dive 20 minutes down to the seabed collecting shellfish, holding their breath for 2 minutes at a time. We went to see some waterfalls instead. Of course, there's a legend: seven nymphs came down from heaven for a paddle one day, something like that... Dayna putting on a brave face about twenty minutes before packing in and heading back to the motel. Though they were kinda pretty, they just weren't worth the cold, which none of us had packed appropriately for. I soon followed Dayna's example and retreated back to our room for a good hot bath. Tuesday it was cold still, we even got a few snow flurries. This is when we finally had to admit defeat: the island had beaten us, and we were never going to make it up Hallasan. At 1,950 metres, Hallasan is South Korea's tallest mountain (actually a dormant volcano) and hiking it had been the centrepiece of our itinerary, so we were pretty bummed when the tourist information people strongly advised against it. Instead, we visited yet another museum. Here's the highlight of Dayna's day: But me and Christa did finally get to eat some decent sushi after pining for days - we just had to foist vegan Dayna onto Mary for a couple of hours in order to get away with it! We all met up again later to drink and warble away the pain of it all: So all in all? Better than working, yes, certainly, but were we sad to leave? Hell no.

Gyeongju (part 3)

2007-03-01T23:05:00.000+09:00

Monday was our final day in Gyeongju, and the weather was perfect: not a cloud in the sky, and the warmest February day I've ever known. Spring officially started in Korea a couple of weeks ago, but it felt like summer today. At one point while we were cycling around a holiday resort on Bomun Lake I felt almost like we were in the Mediterranean. Later in the day Christa would remark that the path were were following, across a patch of farmland and through the narrow back-streets of the town, was evocative of Mexico. These were not comparisons I ever imagined making when we came. Indeed, we did both return home with a little colour on our cheeks, so I swear I'm not exaggerating. Our bus wouldn't be leaving until almost 7pm, so we had a full and exhausting day of tandemming ahead of us. After a decisive bout of rock-scissors-paper ('gowi, bowi, bo' in Korean), I climbed aboard the back seat and we were off. This is Bomun Lake. It's artificial so nothing to get excited about but it was our first stop. It's pretty large and there's a load of touristy sites along one side. We stopped for ice-creams. There were a crazy number of mini-bikes and diddy 4-wheelers flying around the resort. It was like being at the dodgems but with no walls or rules. Everyone was zipping around our ankles (bearing in mind we were up on the tandem), from the old: ...to the very young (spot the kiddo): We'd plan to go around the lake and continue South and finish up doing a huge loop, but we went a tad off-map so had to improvise a new route en route. There's so many tombs and shrines in the area that it was no major problem anyway. This is Historic Site No. 172, one of the five (supposed) tombs of King Pak Hyeokkeose, founder of the Shilla kingdom and ruler for 61 years. After he died, his body ascended to heaven, only for it to fall back to earth again seven days later. It is said to have fallen in five parts, hence the multiplicity of mounds. This is Christa up a tree. Here's a shot of some bamboo I defaced. It's not that easy to write on bamboo with a bent keyring, although Christa's was much neater than mine to be fair. The illegible (even to Koreans probably) Korean at the top should say 장 혁, or Jang Hyok, my Korean name. Hyok either means 'strong' or nothing at all, depending on who I ask. I just picked it because I like the sound; it was suggested by one of the Korean staff here, his best friend having the same name. Most Korean given names have two syllables so the kids sometimes tell me I can't be called that but I know better. Carla gave me the family name Jang. I only found out later that it's also the same name as a famous Korean actor. Christa's name is 이 수정 , or Lee (pronounced 'ee') Sujeong. Sujeong means crystal in Korean. We also went to the tomb of a general and the birthplace of a dragon, which were interesting to us (well, no, the dragon thing, not so much), but you don't need to see any more photos of hills I think. And so it was time to say a sad goodbye. We did not want to say goodbye, Sujeong in particular being very depressed at the thought of returning to Seoul. Here's the courtyard of the lovely little place we stayed Saturday and Sunday nights: And the cosy kitchen/loungey area we had inside: And our trusty bike, which we gave a name to, but who's name I've now forgotten: (Can I say "who's" when I'm referring to an inanimate object? Someone rephrase that sentence for me.) And, uh, we came home. PS. We have no children here next week so no work for after tomorrow until next Friday! We only found this out for sure yesterday but if we can get the plane tickets in time (Christa's off to the travel agent tomorrow lunchtime) we're going to Jeju Island for a few days! And Dayna's gonna come too! Yay!

Gyeongju (part 2)

2007-02-23T22:40:00.000+09:00

Saturday was an improvement. The rains held off and we set out for the bus tour we had booked. One snag: Christa had left me in charge of the tickets, and I'd left them back in our room. Thank god the tour guide was forgiving and issued us another, and we set off. Because Seollal is so important to Koreans, they must've all been at home, as there were only five tickets sold for our tour, and we had the huge bus almost to ourselves. Gyeongju is sometimes known as the 'museum without walls' as there is so much to see. We saw many tombs, temples and Buddha statues. Here's my favourite: Rock on. Or maybe this one: Ok, that's enough of Buddha for now. Our favourite spot was the underwater tomb of King Munmu. Really it just like any other rocky outcrop, but it meant we got to go paddling in he East Sea. And boy was it cold. Some of us got more wet than others. We got back around four, and hooked ourselves up with the tandem that would be our sole means of transportation for the next two days. A few people had said that Gyeongju is best explored by bike, and it was certainly much more fun than the taxis! This is Tumuli Park. These 1000-year-old tombs are scattered through the city, and I couldn't help thinking of the pyramids when I was standing among them in the park, though I can appreciate that in my photos you're really just looking at a bunch of hills. This is Anapji pond. I'm sure there's a fascinating story to it, but all you really need to remember is that we were here taking photos. There's a narrative. We cycled back into town hoping to stuff ourselves with sushi at a restaurants we'd seen earlier in the day. But boo! It was closed for the holidays. We were standing on the street outside debating where to go instead when a young Korean couple came up to us. They had seen us previously at the pond taking pictures and wanted to say hi. Actually, they said quite a bit more than that, as without further ado they invited us to eat dinner with them! His name is Moo Hwan, and his girlfriend is Yeon Kyeong. At least, I think it's that way round. His English was pretty decent, she wasn't as confident but both were real nice. Well, they paid for our meal anyhow! He'd recently been to Canada where some locals had treated him, so he was after returning the favour. I guess I'll have to be on the lookout when I get back so I can do the same! And dinner was delicious. Afterwards, me and Christa went to another nore bang until we were too hoarse and exhausted to sing any more. We were both looking forward to bed, but it was no to be. The guest-house owner stopped us in the yard and redirected us to the kitchen/common area, where all the other foreign guests were having drinks to toast the new year. It was strangely jarring to hear the voice of a lad from Sheffield in amongst all the yanks, but they were all real friendly and willing to share their liquor with us. However we were both too whacked to stay more than another or hour or so, so it wasn't long before we slipped away to bed...

Gyeongju (part 1)

2007-02-22T22:19:00.001+09:00

Christa and I spent last weekend down on the South-East coast in Gyeongju City. There were originally supposed to be at least a dozen of us going, but we (ie. Christa) were the only ones organised enough to book bus tickets early enough. The new lunar year (Seollal in Korean) began on the 18th (it's now the year of the Pig), so many Koreans had to return home to their family homes to pay respect to their ancestors, hence the bus and train tickets all sold out real fast. We were told many times that the ride would take 8-10 hours. It actually only took 6 hours to get down there, and 4.5 back, so we very happy and relieved to get there. We actually thought we were stopping for a bathroom break up to the point when we started pulling into the bus station. We arrived around midnight, throw our bags into the nearest yeogwan (cheap hotel) that was acceptable to Christa's tastes, and headed out to party! Huh. We resorted to plan B, karaoked for a couple of hours. Went to bed. Saturday was miserable. Anne, one of the teachers who couldn't make it, donated to us the reservation she'd made for the next two nights. We must've spent 90 minutes walking back and forth along the same stretch of road looking for the damn place until we finally gave up and went to tourist information, where we found out that bloody Moon guide book map was wrong! Only Lonely Planet from now on. We were gonna hire bikes but couldn't because it was raining and the rental shops had shut. We wasted about half the day just going back and forth across the city trying to find something to do. We ended up at a museum all about Gyeongju's history as the ancient capital of the kingdom of Silla (pronounced Shilla). The Silla people ruled most of the Korea peninsula from the 7th to 9th centuries, and many sites dating from the period are still there to see. Of course, they're all outside, and we were trapped inside, bemoaning the fact that we had ever left Seoul. Honourable mention for highlight of the day (vegetarians stop reading now, this is not gonna be pretty) goes to the delights of Gyeongju market. I don't know what poor creature's been skewered in the first picture, either. Despite these tempting treats we sold out and went to Pizza Hut for lunch. Having no desire to tramp around town in the rain looking for signs of nightlife again, we stocked up on sake and wine at the convenience store and headed back to the ranch to drink and play cards.

Oh yes, they treat us well!

2007-02-15T23:18:00.000+09:00

The school got us all Seollal gifts! I am disproportionately happy: We see these gift packs in the shops whenever there's one of the major gift-giving holidays coming up, and they always make me smile. Finally I have one of my very own. You can get proper luxury all-Spam sets too, but I'll settle for this. Seollal is The Lunar New Year by the way, and the reason we have the three-day weekend to enjoy starting tomorrow. I'll be living it up down in Gyeongju, so I can guarantee there won't be any more postings until (I'll optimistically say early) next week. Sae hae bok mani mani bahdeusaeyo! Happy Korean New Year!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2007-02-14T23:45:00.002+09:00

Hope y'all were showered with the gifts I'm sure you all richly deserve today. We had a special Valentine's event in the canteen this lunchtime - everyone got a bar of chocolate, AND! a slice of cold garlic bread. Oh, they treat us well. I found another bar hanging from my door-handle after lunch from Mary, and Christa claims she left a rose on my doorstop (since I told her I'd never received flowers from anybody...) but no evidence of this has been found. I'm afraid they may have ulterior motives though, for in Korea, while on Valentines day it is the girls that give to the boys, the girls get paid back a month later. March 14th, or White Day, is when men traditionally give gifts to the ladies (I say it's traditional, but it actually dates back to circa 1965). This is a good deal for the men, because as well as getting a reminder a month in advance, they can gauge from the value of the gift that they received how much to spend in return! Anyhow, this is not all. In a triumph of marketing, Korea has a third holiday on April 14th. This one is truly depressing. It's called Black Day, and it's an opportunity for all those lonely souls who haven't yet received anything on Valentine's Day or White Day to meet up and eat noodles with black bean sauce together. I'm so happy I got the chocolate.

New Personal Best.

2007-02-13T22:40:00.000+09:00

Hi there. So. It's been a while. Mianhamnida. Is anyone still here? So yes, there seems to be a pattern developing with regards to the (in)frequency of my posts these days. I see that. I won't promise things will change, because I've done that before and I feel my words may be meaningless now. Instead, I'll give you the run-down on how my weekly routine has been as of late, and next time you're here and I haven't posted, you can just use your imagination instead. Weekday mornings usually see me working my mojo in the magic classroom . This one's definitely more entertaining than teaching, but it can be fun for me too. I'd be happy doing 45 minutes of card tricks, but there's also a bunch of magical props in the room to mix things up. Most of them are pretty lame, and the kids can usually see straight through the tricks, but they enjoy it anyway. Sometimes, you'll get one kid who just wants to BELIEVE! and he'll imploring the others to 'just accept it! and stop spoiling the fun. My afternoons are even slacker, as I'm teaching pool! Despite the theme, the kids often end up using more English that they do in my other classes. This is because I put them in a three-minute time-out if they use any Korean at all, and since they really want to play, it forces them to stick to the rules to the letter. Few have played before, so we've not yet managed to get through a whole game. The way some of them handle the cue, you'd think they've never held any piece of sporting equipment before. Not that I'm one to talk about sporting prowess. I'm finally working day-shift again, so I can actually go out to play with my friends after work! Yet somehow I still seem to have very little free time. Monday and Thursday nights are Korean class 7 - 9pm, after which I'll come back and do my homework if nothing else is going on. Wednesday has become our weekly poker night, which I am yet to make a profit on. Tomorrow night being Valentine's day, half of regulars have bailed on us, so tomorrow night is Single's Night! Friday or Saturday night will probably find us singing karaoke until 5am, leading to the following day being mostly spent in bed. I really should post more often for my own sake - with my memory I completely forget what I've done otherwise...did I ever tell you about the time we accidentally ordered tripe soup? The only photos of interest I've taken in the last couple of weeks are from this Sunday's visit to Seoul Tower, one of the major tourist attractions that I've somehow never quite reached before. I think I said back before Christmas how refreshing it was not having to see any decorations being put up in November like back home. We are however still living with them mid-February. The Mighty Han. Public theatre. There's video too, but I can't do that to her. Or at least I won't, on this occasion. This weekend is the Lunar New Year, so a massive bunch of us are heading down to Gyeongju on the East coast. I don't have the faintest what the sights are down there, but it's my first time properly out of Seoul in seven months so I'm very excited! You might even get another post next week! The holiday means we get a three-day weekend to enjoy, but ultimately we're no better of as it just means we'll be teaching Tuesday-Saturday next week instead of Monday-Friday! But at least we'll be well rested. Or maybe not. There's a bit of a sickness going round again, but it's only mild this time. I have a bit of a runny nose and tickly cough is all. Not much, but it is enough to crack open the medicinal whiskey. There's a Korean citrus 'tea' called yu-ja-cha, which honestly looks and tastes exactly like marmalade, but I've discovered that with a shot of whiskey it is almost worth being sick for. I put the kettle on to make some about 45 minutes ago when I started writing this damn post, and now I'm finally going to let myself go and finish the job... Chal ja.

Fan-mail excerpts

2007-02-02T12:17:00.000+09:00

The typical letter that I receive from a student goes pretty much like this: Hello Ryan teacher! My name is X. How are you? Good. I like you because you is/are tall/handsome/kind. My favorite class is Y (where Y is rarely the class that I've taught them), because it is very fun. Do you like pizza/soccer? Goodbye. I love you. X Even though I'm sure they tell it to everyone, or maybe just so I'll give them more excellent stamps, it's still very good for one's self-esteem to hear 'teacher so handsome!' a dozen times everyday. And it's generally the boys that say it... Here are a few of the more random excerpts that I received recently:

You're handsome and tall. All people in the world like handsome man! I'm not tall, so I like you...When I grow up I want to look like your face (but I'm woman...) This means "I really like your face". Wendy I want to be like your (not your body) mind. Jack

I like you because you're very kind. I think. Sky Ryan I think you are very kind in SEV! Because you are not hit and make angry. I want to be like your (not your body) mind. Jack I can't see your angry. Anon. You said the post office teacher is excellent. I think she is excellent. But she is a little bit boring. Sally

I like you and yummy for breakfast, lunch, dinner. You're nice and excellent. You're class very fun and not boring and kind. Good bye teacher. I love you. Kerry In your class I was surprise, because you bend your knee at team 10. So, I promise your saying. Sally I like you Ryan teacher. You broked my glasses but it is ok. Sam

Second posting in 3 days!

2007-01-31T12:49:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-28T21:40:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-22T18:24:00.000+09:00

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%

2007-01-16T00:11:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-14T20:52:00.000+09:00

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

Goop.

2007-01-10T00:26:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-08T22:15:00.000+09:00

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...

2007-01-07T22:06:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-06T19:37:00.001+09:00

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

2007-01-06T19:29:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-04T15:02:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-03T21:41:00.000+09:00

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

Gongi

2007-01-02T23:53:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-01T21:47:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-01T20:40:00.000+09:00

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.

Halfway

2006-12-28T22:56:00.000+09:00

Today is my six month anniversary in South Korea, which of course also means that in the same amount of time again, it'll be time to move on to whatever's next. Most of us teachers that started together in July agree that it seems like we've only been here a few months, though at the same time, the days of frolicking up in the pool as the sun went down do seem very distant right now, caught as we are in the middle of a rather bitter snap. Three more teachers leave us this week, though two only because they signed six-month contracts to begin with. We have a bunch of fresh new teachers to fill the breach, but among us veterans there seems to be a bit of a malaise in the air, I think for a few reasons: many of us seem to have persistent colds like we've never had before back home, so we're all feeling a little drained anyway, and the ever-crashing wave of kids shows little sign of breaking - I know that compared to my old 9 to 5 this job's pretty cushy, but having 100% of the slots on my timetable filled (as compared to the old days when I used to have at least a couple of free periods every day) takes its toll. Plus, there's the cold, and the being so far from home at Christmas, which I think has gotten many people down too... On a more positive note, Christmas was not a complete disappointment despite having to work all day. In the morning I managed to speak to my mum and dad for two hours via (a very dodgy) webcam so we could open our gifts together. It almost felt like being home. That, and the Christmas dinner later made with (I should really say 'by') Mary and Christa, actually made the day feel like Christmas, which I wasn't expecting it to. In other news, the two-week winter camps start next week. I'm working as one of the 'science major' teachers, doing various experiments with the kids, so should be fun. We have the beginnings of plan to go to Vietnam with our generous 5 days of annual leave in February or March, which is pretty exciting. Something to focus on during the cold times ahead (the snow from the weekend before last has still not fully melted). Oh, yeah, and I guess it's been noted that my posts have fallen to weekly rather than daily lately. I'm gonna blame the heavy schedule and ask you to bare with me. I'll try harder but am making no promises. New Year's resolution maybe. And speaking of, Have a Happy New Year everyone!

2006-12-20T10:46:00.000+09:00

It seems another week has snuck past without any updates from me. I hadn't been intending on leaving it this long - I never do, of course. Excuses this week include stressing out about Christmas shopping at the weekend, and then a possible case of food poisoning earlier in the week. I'll spare you the details. Saturday night was our staff Christmas party. It was held at a local wedding hall, and included free food (Korean buffet, so-so) and free beer and soju (no complaints here). Hightlights of the meals - wait, 'hightlights' is the wrong word; most noteworthy dishes included green fish eggs (which maybe tasted like cavier, but I've never eaten caviar), and...well, I'm no expert, so can someone tell me: is this this a cricket or a grasshopper? Whatever you want to call them, they were slightly sweet, and not at all unpleasant; the texture on the other hand, and the fear of getting bits of leg or wing stuck in your teeth, is not one I plan on getting used to. The key is not to think about it, and drink lots of alcohol beforehand. After the meal came the speeches and of course, karaoke. As entertaining as it is to see the school directors bumping and grinding on the dancefloor (again), you can only listen to so many obscure Korean hits before needing a break. Rob had passed up an invitation to attend a Korean Wedding earlier in the day, but as it happens, there was a wedding reception going on downstairs at the same time as our party, so Rob figured maybe he didn't need to miss out on the experience after all. After reassuring each other that yes, in fact, we were both being serious, the two of us set off downstairs to gatecrash. Thinking we would be turned out sharpish, I set my stopwatch going as we entered, to see how long we could last. After loitering by the door for only a minute, we were dragged onto the dancefloor by a couple of middle-aged drunken Korean women. After stomping along with them for a handful of traditional Korean tunes (which always sound a little Bollywood to me), one of the guests decided it was our turn to do a number. Maybe we'd drunk more than I thought, for we agreed very readily. I thought a good old crowd pleaser to keep the dancing going, while Rob was focusing on what would make the best story later. As it is, we went with Rob's choice, which is how we ended up singing Radiohead's Creep at a Korean stranger's wedding. The dancefloor being strangely empty after we'd finished, we beat a hasty retreat amid polite applause... Our own party was quite conventional in comparison, and we didn't stay much longer. All of the school's staff had been out, but after the meal we splintered into separate groups. Mine went to a nearby bar for more drinks and cake. It was also Christa's birthday today, hence the cake, and tequila. We can only have been in there a couple of hours, but when we came out again everyone was amazed by the blanket of snow that had fallen (and was still falling) in the meantime. After an impromptu (and I'm sure, quite disrespectful) snowball fight in the middle of town, we went into a singing room (and smuggled in a few more drinks of course). After paying for the first three hours we realised that the place had stopped charging us, meaning that we had no incentive to leave, ever. However, after all of our other friends had leaked away, and our voices had turned to gravel, Christa, Vanessa and I finally slip-slided our way home through the snow sometime after 5am, happy and tired.

Food

2006-12-13T12:21:00.000+09:00

A fringe benefit of my Korean lessons is that I now know my way around the staples of a Korean restaurant menu, which means I can be much more adventurous with what I order. In particular, there's a chain of restaurants called Kimbab Cheonguk (or Kimbab (or seaweed-rice) Heaven), the menu of which me and Christa had to memorise in entirety for homework recently. We've developed a semi-regular habit of popping in there after class to grab something to eat. Our previous method of finding new dishes was to pick at random and hope for the best. With hindsight, I see that we were rather lucky to avoid the fish egg noodles, the pig's intestine sausages, and the ox bone and snail "hangover" soup. In fact, it's my current favourite place to eat, as the aforementioned delicacies aside (which we haven't (yet?) tried so shouldn't judge) , they do have some great food on offer. Especially on cold days like these, there's nothing better than a hearty bowl of stew or soup, which the Koreans do very well. Doenjang jjigae, and its extra-pungent cousin Cheonggukjang jjigae, is a soybean paste-based soup, containing vegetables and tofu, and sometimes shellfish including small mussels and shrimp. I guess I have to accept that there's really no way for me to make fermented soybean paste sound appetizing, but it really is delicious. I'm faced with a similar problem when it comes to Budae jjigae, (which translates to "army base stew" since it was first created from surplus rations from the US Army after the Korean War). This is an excellent sinus-clearer, as being based on a chili/soybean paste it is very spicy. Common ingredients include instant noodes, tofu, beans, hot dogs and Spam! Trust me, it's great. I'm not aiming to turn this page into a recipe book, so I'll hold back for now on many of my other favourites. Suffice to say that I am a total convert to Korean food. There's really nothing from back home that I'm missing right now, but I know I'll be craving some of the food here when I'm gone. There are those (I'm thinking of Emma in particular but she's certainly not the only one) who have never really appreciated the food here; the only reason I can suggest is that opinions have been too heavily based on cafeteria food - contrast cafeteria with real food back home and you'll see the problem. But, I shouldn't speak for anyone else. I love Korean food. Let's leave it at that.

Shannon's Flight

2006-12-11T17:37:00.001+09:00

Shannon Soesbe left us today. She's heading back home for a few weeks before setting off on her next adventure to go teach English in Turkey. Korea I think just wasn't her cup of tea, but she gave it six months, which is a fair shot. Though I never got to know her half as well as I'd have liked, she will be missed. Her absence will leave this place a shade less colourful than it was, and I wish her all the best. One final story before we say goodbye, though. Because I've been to the airport and back a couple of times (for Katie's visit and Emma's own departure) Shannon asked me if I'd mind nipping into Suyu with her on Sunday to point out where she needed to catch the airport bus. Of course I was happy to oblige, but since I'd spent most of the day shopping, I suggested that it would be easier if I just went with her (and Daniel) this morning instead, which would mean I got to wave her off, too. Woken up by my alarm at the unholy hour of 8:45am, with a streaming nose and the beginnings of another sore throat, I kinda wished I'd just shown her yesterday, but dragged myself up nonetheless. After a final lap around the building a teary goodbye or two, we set off to grab a taxi. It's still not entirely clear what happened, but I believe it was the security guards kindly ordering a taxi for us that kicked off the ensuing madness. It quickly became apparent that we were not on the way to Suyu (though maybe not as quickly as it might've been, as Daniel and I were wedged on the back seat under Shannon's suitcases and couldn't really see a thing). When quizzed, the driver said that he was taking us to Gireum Station, rather that Suyu Station as we assumed had been sorted out when security had spoken to him. Despite us protesting many many times - Aniyo! Suyu! - the cabbie was unrelenting. Indeed, he seemed to rather enjoy the power he had over us. He kept muttering in Korean, and all we could really make out was Gireum, about 15 minutes out of our way. I found it all ridiculously funny, but Shannon was getting seriously riled. 'Suyu, motherf***ing retard!' I believe she was beseeching him at one point (to be fair she had a plane to catch in a couple of hours, and we were in effect being hijacked), but to no avail, the cabbie just laughed and carried on. After a few attempts, Daniel managed to get a Korean member of our school's staff on the phone to talk to our kidnapper and clarify the situation. It seems that between them, the cabbie and security guards had decided that the traffic would be too busy around Suyu so had opted on an ulterior plan. Never mind that nobody had asked or even informed us of this, or the fact the Shannon had been wanting to go to the bank in Suyu first, we're just dumb foreigners after all. To his credit, he did eventually deposit us at a appropriate bus stop, and after a twenty minute wait in the freezing cold, we said our final goodbyes, and she was gone. Bye, Shannon.

Recap

2006-12-11T11:26:00.000+09:00

Right, so I've written squat since Thursday, and nothing of significance since the Monday before that, so I think we're due an update. I turned 25 years old on Wednesday. It doesn't feel much different. My Korean age will remain the same until January, when I'll be 27, bluhhh. It was a pretty low key day as I was working in the evening and most of my friends were working the next morning. Nevertheless, it was nice; I was showered with some expertly-chosen gifts (mostly art materials, very cool), and had the Happy Birthday Song (or sometimes the Korean version, Sengil Chukahmnida) sung to me about seven or eight times throughout the day. After work I went round for a little celebration at Shannon's with cake and beer and friends. Thursday was a little stressful. We're having lots of Government-sponsored students this month, which inevitably seems to mean very low English skills. Trying to conduct a class with such low comprehension can be draining at the best of times, but this month I'm teaching theatre class, the lesson plan for which focuses on having the kids act out a short theatre piece. When only one of them can read the title of the play, getting them through their individual lines is total fantasy, which leaves me a little adrift at times. Friday was more of the same, but at least it was Friday. After graduation, a troop of SEV staff made their way over to Itaewan, to the final of the battle-of-the-bands-esque showdown that our friend Kane Sole was competing in. He was robbed of victory by a dodgy mike that meant the vocals could barely be heard (the sound guy adjusted the acoustics right after Kane's set) but was awarded with an 'honourable mention' at least. We had planned to meet up with Shannon's going away crowd afterwards, but the competition and MC dragged on for so long that all we wanted to do after the result was head home to bed. Saturday was a typically lazy weekend day - I could've done with doing some shopping and laundry, but the only productive activity I managed was a little Korean study. Me and Christa went out for sushi later in the day, which was both disappointing and expensive. The salmon was frozen solid (and it's not like it's easy to complain here) and the majority of the sashimi that we ordered was too chewy to enjoy. The highlight of the meal was Christa gamely taking up my challenge to eat the whole dollop of wasabi in one go. It had been making my eyes water even in small doses, so I was a little concerned as to what it might do to her, and there was indeed a moment she looked certain the throw up, but thankfully she managed to stifle the reflex before it got that far. At some point in the near future I want to write a post on some of my favourite Korean dishes; it seems that usually when I talk about food here it's because I'm drawing attention to some weird or wacky thing I've seen or tasted (and often I've only mentioned our cafeteria food, and we all know what school dinners are like!). There are some real tasty foods out around though, so I feel it only fair to redress the balance. For now, all I'll say on the matter is that on Sunday, me and Christa had a great lunch at a local restaurant before heading out for an exhausting day of Christmas shopping in Insadong, of which no more can be revealed at this time.

Important Corduroy Update

2006-12-07T23:11:00.000+09:00

Just a quick update on my (vain and arbitrary) mission to ensnare any waylaid cordoroy affectionados* searching for the term 'cordoroy appreciation' out there: I have now made it up to page three. This is good news, as according to a study done by Jupiter Research and marketing firm iProspect, people will go through at most three pages of results before giving up and starting again with new keywords. However, 62% of people will click on a link on the first page, which doesn't give me much of a shot. *have I made this word up? It gets 14,000 ghits (google hits) but isn't in any dictionary that I can find...

Lazy Post Day

2006-12-05T23:59:00.000+09:00

No post today, busy busy busy, but I would like to refer to you to these two posts on the dearly departed Shawn and Mel's blog featuring a very thorough listing of some of many the peculiarities of Korea that they have noticed in their first few months. Pretty accurate and too funny. Well, maybe only funny in a context-specific 'in-joke' kinda way, it's hard to tell.

Temple Stay

2006-12-04T10:49:00.000+09:00

This weekend, me and Christa participated in a Buddhist Temple Stay at Lotus Lantern International Meditation Center near On Soo Ree (a couple of hours West of us). It's a 24-hour program which took us from lunchtime on Saturday to lunchtime Sunday, during which we were taught about various Buddhist practices by the monks there. There were 13 participants this weekend: 2 Canadians, 3 Irish (Northern I think, with accents so thick Christa thought they were talking another language), 1 English (just me, as usual), I think just 1 American, 1 Swiss dude, a couple of Germans and 2 Korean girls. Ok, that's just 12...maybe there were two from Switzerland. The monks were a diverse bunch too: one each from Russia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Korea (the Abbott). Although 46.5% of the South Korean population (according to Wikipedia) express no religious preference, Buddhism is the most widely practised religion in South Korea, so we figured we should learn something about it while we are here. Saturday was mainly taken up with a series of talks by the monks and our guide (I forget her name, but she spoke excellent English) introducing us to the concepts of mediation, mantras, meal offerings and so on, that we would be practising on the Sunday. We also did a little 'community work' in the temple garden, picking flowers until our fingers went numb with cold. They use them to make a rather pleasant tasting tea that we would try later. After dozing through the 'Introduction to Korean Buddhism' DVD they put on for us in the evening, we were sent to bed at around 9:15pm. Early but understandable, as we were to be woken for pre-dawn chanting at 3:45am 'the next day'. Surprisingly I didn't have any problems getting up so early - all these late mornings must've topped up my sleep-reserves. Learning from the previous day's mistakes, I put on my jeans under the training-suit pants that I had been relying on the day before, and an extra pair of socks. Although it was to be a beautiful clear day later, I don't think it ever got above a couple of degrees, so we were very cold in the temple (though most of the other buildings were heated). Obviously we couldn't go around taking too many pictures, but the inside of the temple looked not unlike this. Just picture the air foggy with our breath and you're there. So, 4am chanting and prostrations. We'd been given a Sanskrit mantra to memorise the night before ("Om Amogha vairocana mahamudra manipadma jvala Pravarttaya Hum"; the meaning is apparently irrelevant as it's merely used to focus the mind) but we hadn't really had time to practise so most of us just listened and bowed when signaled to. For the bows, I guess we really we need a demonstration...hang on... To show respect to the Buddha, this has to be done each time you enter the temple and isn't such a big deal. But now imagine doing this at 4am, in the freezing cold. Ok? Now, imagine doing that one hundred and eight times non-stop. Not easy. I think by the final few I was just letting myself fall to the floor... After these and much not-entirely-unpleasant chanting from the monks we moved to a thankfully warmer room to mediate for 20 minutes. We were instructed to just try and count ten breaths in and out without allowing any other thoughts to enter our heads. I don't think I made it beyond 'two' without some stray thought about what breakfast might be, or what I would do in class tomorrow, or how I really really should've gone to the toilet a couple of hours ago when I got up...Failure aside, I did appreciate the possible benefits of the mediations, so will be trying again. All meals were supposed to be consumed in silence, but Sunday's breakfast involved a (simplified) version of the complex Buddhist meal offering rituals. We had been instructed in the methods the night before by our guide, but being a newbie, it seems she'd made a few errors, so the Russian monk talked us through it. The bowl set comprises four bowls, one each for rice, soup (or in our case, gruel), side dishes and water. The set is initially wrapped up in a long cloth, with the bowls all neatly fitting inside each other like Russian dolls. The bowls must be unwrapped and placed on the table in a strict order. Each of us had a certain responsibility - serving gruel, water, etc. After eating, a pan of hot water is brought round; some is poured into the largest bowl, which you must clean out with a small piece of kimchi. The water is then passed in order through the three others and the process is repeated. Then you eat the kimchi and drink the water, so that not a scrap of food is wasted. After drinking the dishwater, cold water is brought around to rinse, but thankfully, you don't have to drink this (unless it's dirty and the abbot thinks you have wasted too much food). Finally, the set is carefully wrapped up again with a pretty bow. Actually, the final thing is unwrapping it all and washing the bowls properly in the sink, although I thought mine was clean enough actually... As the sun was rising we were lead on a walk around the local farm land while meditating on the beauty of nature. In any case, it was a really beautiful time to be out and about so was not at all resentful that on a normal weekend (or any day really) I would still be wrapped in bed for several more hours. We even got a souvenir of the experience (not that we're shallow and can't appreciate the deeper significance blah blah blah, but me and Christa do like a freebie) as next on the agenda was a lesson in Chinese calligraphy using brush and ink: I think it's really pretty, even though I'm sure it's quite eligible. To see just how bad I am at this, take a closer look at the first three columns - they're supposed to be identical. I don't know what it means (again, doesn't really matter, but copying the characters takes all your attention so helps clear your mind), other than it's a sutra - a Buddhist scripture regarded as a record of the oral teachings of Gautama Buddha. Mid-day chanting was at 11, but before that we had time for a special tea ceremony and (translation-assisted) Q&A with the abbot. After that, lunch (all meals strictly veggie by the way, and quite decent fare, too) before being swiftly driven (for once I was grateful for the Korean tendency to drive through red lights) back to the bus stop just in time for the hourly bus home. All in all, a very peaceful and enlightening weekend.

I'm all about the corduroy

2006-11-30T18:13:00.000+09:00

Being a bit of geek, I use a site called ritetracker to monitor various statistics for my blog. I was just having a browse through some of the more obsure factoids and came across a list of google.com keywords used by people who have (apparently inadvertently) landed themselves at my site in the past. Here are my favourites: 5 'ARGOS' - I have never mention Argos. Not once. I have no idea how a google search for Argos could have lead anyone here, but apparently it is so. 4 'gunter's place seoul boot' - What this guy was actually looking for I have no idea. My Gunter was my creepy German room-mate in Osaka. 3 'milk in korean cuisine' - I am the fourth hit on google for this query! If the were looking for culinary tips, they must've been pretty disappointed to end up here since I was talking about a foul pineapple milk drink they gave us in the cafeteria one day. 2 'how far do zebra travl' - Hey, thanks to the mutual misspelling, I'm the top hit for this one! 1 'corduroy appreciation club' - I love that this search points to me, but I only show up on page 7. Maybe now that I've mentioned it twice my ranking with improve. Hmm. Corduroy. Corduroy Appreciation. Corduroy Corduroy Corduroy. See how many more hapless souls I can capture now.

Month 5

2006-11-29T22:27:00.000+09:00

Well, it was five months yesterday, but close enough. I guess event of the month is Emma's leaving for home last weekend. I think our original pact was that neither of us would allow the other to leave within the first three months, but after that would be no hard feelings. So, she's gone, and so far seems happy with her decision, but if in the next 10 days she should change her mind, she does have a return ticket as it was cheaper than a single, so who knows? Shannon has one more week to go before she leaves to enjoy a few weeks back home in Des Moines (pronounced "de Moyne" apparently - who knew?) in Iowa; then fingers crossed, she'll be teaching English in Turkey from January. Hopefully she may let me swing by for a short visit next Summer en route to the UK! The first signs of Christmas have arrived just in time to remind me to get a bit of shopping done for the folks back home; it's very refreshing to get a break from the usual saturation of media and retail back home...and having so few (and so far, pretty tasteful) fairy lights around means that you actually do take a second to appreciate them. My main class for December is theatre, clearly something I was born to teach after my last foray into the world of dramatic arts. Whatever doesn't kill you, etc, etc... At least I have seemingly managed to hoodwink them into putting me on evening duty once again (and maybe for January and February too, but schedules are always subject to change), but whenever they finally do put me back on regular morning duty again, I will suffer greatly. But it would stop me being so lazy: my goal for the month is to get up at least once for the pre-9am breakfast - by popular demand they've recently started serving bagels, cereal and other Western delights to the staff, but I have yet to sample any...it's so cold in the mornings! The next month will be busy as we gear up to the special winter camps around the new year, but due to my working the evening shifts, I should at least get Christmas Eve and New Year's Day off (owing to them being on weekends) - but unfortunately not the days after either! The weekends will be busy too, but in the good way - with many leaving do's, birthdays, and Christmas meals to attend...though possibly not my birthday which I may end up celebrating in January owing to scheduling conflicts! And now dear readers, I am going to go watch the last ever episode of The West Wing, which I know none of you care about, and for that you are fools. Annyong.

Made in Korea!

2006-11-28T02:48:00.000+09:00

Who knew?

Public service announcement

2006-11-27T20:58:00.000+09:00

Ok, so while googling for the dreadful pun 'hard to swallow' which I regrettably used as the title for the previous post to check that it did actually mean 'hard to believe' as I thought, I have to admit I found myself drawn to this headline and, well, I just had to share it: Hard to Swallow: An Austrian lung specialist is encouraging better living through nose-picking. You're welcome.

Hard to Swallow

2006-11-27T20:37:00.000+09:00

For lunch today, we had fried egg atop kimchified rice (not bad actually), cuttlefish soup, radish kimchi, pasta salad, and a dish which I have come to know as jam-chicken (the true nature of the sauce never being made entirely clear to me). For dinner we had bulgogi (cheap beef stew), rice (with, I'm gonna say, millet), cabbage soup with rice cakes, eggs (of a size comparable with a quail's but who can say) and, sure, kimchi. Fair enough, all standard fair, and all in all, not the worst menu here. However. This week we have a horde of government-sponsored kids in attendance. Actually I think the Bank of Korea might have something to do with it too. Anyway. For reasons that we clearly don't need to know (maybe they're malnourished), these subsidised kids are getting an unprecedented fourth meal every night this week before they go to bed (the other being breakfast which I never get up for). This extra meal - which of course is only for the subsidised kids, and not for the teachers or the kids from families who actually paid for them to come here - tonight comprises of: fajitas, sandwiches (which Koreans just do not eat, like, ever!), an orange, and something - coffee? hot choco? - in a Starbucks cup! They have never given we who may appreciate such food anything remotely like that to eat... And you just know half of it's ending up in the trash.

All that she leaves behind

2006-11-26T13:07:00.000+09:00

One of two empty or nearly empty water bottles... A Winnie-the-Pooh splashback... An iced Coffee drink, a gift from one of the kids; I guess she forgot to drink it after all... One mostly-used toilet roll... A single sturdy coat-hanger. Most certainly 'Out'.

She's gone...

2006-11-25T16:45:00.001+09:00

Though I suppose I should say she's on her way - Emma's flight took off about three and a half hours ago, but she won't be landing until...well, to save the usual time zone confusion, she won't be landing for another eight hours or so. Rather her than me - we were so bored last time, but to be doing it alone is a bit daunting. She has sudoku though, so should be okay. Due to the timing of her final paycheck, Emma had to draw out and exchange her won at Incheon Airport. The largest South Korean banknote is only 10,000 won (about a fiver) so the withdrawal was an inch-thick, but we were still more excited by the post-exchange currency: For those not so lucky as to have any fifties lying around the house, the dude on the reverse is Sir John Houblon, the Bank of England's first governor. She wouldn't even let me have one as a souvenir. Here are my final moments with Emma until next summer: Flight KE 907 to London. Nearly ended up costing quite a bit more than expected - the baggage allowance is 20kg per bag, and Emma's main suitcase was a whopping 32kg! The lady on the check in desk said initially that the first 5kg that were excess were gratis, but that still left 7kg at about £12 per kg. Eventually, she relented and Emma was only charged for 3kg, thank goodness... Alone, after a much needed bite to eat at Lotteria, and a quick wander around the airport shops, I took myself off to the 'Panorama Lounge' to try and see the plane taking off... It was a bit of a swanky place actually, and the waiter hovering by my table implied I should probably but something. It cost 9000 won for an orange juice, so I picked the cheapest thing on the menu, which happily was a piece of blueberry chocolate cake for a mere 5000 won (more than enough for a full blown meal anywhere else). From my vantage point I could see seven or eight Korean Air planes waiting to go, so I decided to just wait for the first one to go after 1:15pm (Emma's departure time) and call that hers. After dragging out the consumption of my three-bite slice of cake to an excruciating twenty five minutes, one of the planes finally decided to move. I couldn't see any runway from the restaurant, so I just watched until it had taxied out of sight and I left. And home I came, all by myself. Tired as hell now - we had to leave SEV at 8:30am this morning, which I know is not that early really but having been on evening shift for the past three months I'm not used to getting up before 10am! Well. Bye then, Em. I'll miss you! (P.S. Um...now, try not to freak out Emma, but I seem to have your Friends Series 10 eps. 5-8 DVD!)

Emma

2006-11-24T11:36:00.000+09:00

Emma's going home tomorrow! She's making the, um, final touches, to her packing right now. That's all for now.

Homework

2006-11-22T23:00:00.000+09:00

Short post today; for Korean class tomorrow, I have to memorise this page-long introduction of myself ('of myself'? 'to myself'? Why do they both sound wrong? What hope have I got with Korean when I'm not even sure about English?): I've got the brunt of it down ok, but what's giving me most jip is that Korean uses lots of markers that indicate the grammatical roles of certain words within a sentence: subjects, objects, topics, etc. What's the difference between a subject and a topic? I'm still trying to get my own head around that...

More Salsa

2006-11-21T23:59:00.000+09:00

Naturally, I took my own camera on the town last weekend, but since I spent most of the night engaged with an ever revolving circle of partners, I barely had chance to get any decent shots of my own. Thankfully, Mary seemingly took it upon herself to act as official party photographer, and she's just posted a hundred and fifty or so online. Here are some of my favourites. This is me and Mary herself, attempting a *cough* screw for the camera. Emma and Shawn; it looks here like they've just banged heads, but seeming to be having a good time nonetheless. Alicia and Siamack jammin' with more instruments the bar staff must've immediately regretted giving us. Emma with Anne and Claudia enjoying a break between dancing. I think this is either me dying of shame following a particularly dreadful performance, or gasping for breath near the end of the night as my voice began to utterly fail me. Can't be sure. (Aside: note Emma happily munching a Choco Diget, one of the my three biscuits of choice out here , the other two being Binches (which have a rather nice shiney chocolate coating on one side) and Oreos, half a pack of which I've dispatched since beginning this post...)

My hectic schedule

2006-11-20T22:12:00.000+09:00

We only have nine teams of kids here this week (contrast with the usual twenty-plus) so all our schedules are pretty barren this week. I do have night duty too, but it's hardly work - tonight all I had to do to earn my money was sit in the back of the room and watch The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for two hours!

Emma's Leaving Party

2006-11-20T14:56:00.000+09:00

She doesn't go home until Saturday next weekend, but we on Saturday we all went out to celebrate Emma's time here. We started with a salsa bar, Bahia, to put our occasional students through their paces; to help summon up some of that latino spirit, the bar supplied us with a small orchestra of instruments, including but not limited to: maracas, tamborines, some kind of drum which I will call a bongo, and my personal favourite, the cowbells. It is now my opinion that no song could suffer if there was just a little more cowbell. Here's Emma rockin' it up... And Melodie getting down with the 'bongo': And of course there was plenty of the dancing, especially for me, as the male/female ratio was rather low as usual! At one point I just dropped to my knees after finishing a dance with Vanessa, I was too exhausted to even walk back over to where we were sitting... With my favourite partner: The recently departed Shawn and Melody dancing their recently learned Bachata: We stayed until they pretty much kicked us out mid-Merengue at about 2am or so, but this being Emma's last big night out here, and her not yet having Nore Banged, most of us moved on. There are Nore bang joints (singing rooms) on every street corner in Seoul, so in fact we only had to go upstairs to find one that could accommodate us: And of course the night wouldn't be complete without an embarrassing video or two: You can view the full video playlist here, if you really must. Annyonghi kaseyo, Emma.

The Snip

2006-11-18T17:05:00.000+09:00

This morning, looking quite bushy-tailed as usual, and...wait for it... Though I may look a little drunk in the 'after' pic, I am in fact, not.

Due

2006-11-17T00:05:00.000+09:00

Well. I can't log in hotmail to access the eight messages it claims I have waiting for me because of unusually high server activity. Lost season three is on an outrageous thirteen week hiatus, so my evening's downloading plans are scuppered. And finally, there's nobody in at my parent's house (I was trying to ring to disprove rumours of me being on my deathbed that were beginning to circulate as a result of my not posting anything since the weekend, when I said I was a bit ill). Hence, I thought I may as well write something. I may have to rush as there is to be a blogger outage at 12:30PM (PST), but I don't know when that is relative to me. Aah, I just checked, it's okay, I have 5 hours still... It's been a busy week, we've had many kids here so am looking especially forward to seeing them off tomorrow. Emma's leaving do is on Saturday night, we're going to the salsa bar we went to a few months ago, then maybe to a nore bang (Korean Karaoke) afterwards. Should be fun. Anyway, in eight more days, she's gone. We were without heating for much of this week, was not at all pleasant. Now it's been 'fixed', except that part of the 'solution' involves never being able to turn the heating off again. It's all or nothing apparently. I'm in the process of changing over my email to gmail, so please email at ryjones114@gmail.com from now on. I guess I'll be checking both for a while anyway just to make sure. Korean class was heated tonight. There's only me and Christa there, so our teacher likes to pit us off against each other by awarding stars for getting questions right and winning at the games she devises. Tonight I was just about ready to flip the table over when Christa started edging ahead of me during a quiz we were doing on the bank vocab. She'd not studied OR done her homework, but she was still managing to get the right answers by sheer guesswork, it was so unfair. Yeah, that's right, Welsh: guesswork. Anyway, her prize was a packet of octupus crisps, so it's unclear who really came out the winner.

Sparklering

2006-11-12T21:06:00.000+09:00

As a consolation for the utter non-acknowledgement of the existence of Guy Fawkes Night over her, Emma treated us to a pack of fifty sparklers from E-mart. And, oh, did we have fun... These things were just waiting for the advert of digital cameras... Emma as winged demon. The shutter speed was still a little fast for the '-yan'. Lightsabre, kinda. Broken heart. We attracted a few of the neighbours... Who needs fireworks?

Happy Pepero Day!

2006-11-11T20:18:00.000+09:00

I do realise that for much of the world today is Remembrance day, a time of solemn reflection n'all, but we in Korea choose to celebrate the much more upbeat Pepero day instead - quite possibly the most commercial national holiday I've ever come across. Pepero is the name of a long chocolate-covered biscuity confection. Somehow, their manufacturer, Lotte, masters of Korea (they're behind everything) have managed to successfully push forth a national (albeit unofficial) day into the public consciousness. It seems to be much like valentine's day, but really just for kids, and instead of cards, all the shops have been selling special packs of Peperos with hearts and flowers blazened across the packaging. Really bizarre. Oh, and it's November 11th as the date (11/11) looks like four Pepero sticks. Likewise, the Corduroy Appreciation Club celebrate Corduroy Appreciation Day because it's the date that most resembles corduroy. You can't make this stuff up. In other news (if you're still reading) the SEV exodus officially began today, with Shawn and Melody of Canada being transferred down to Suwon (three hours away) to finally start the jobs they came here to do two months ago. Their apartment was the official gaming headquarters around here. On at least six nights out of seven, it'd be a fare bet that there'd be a card or dice game of some sort going on over at their place, so they'll certainly be missed. Emma leaves in exactly a fortnight, and Shannon will be leaving just after my birthday, so it's all gonna feel very strange around these parts come Christmas. Also, I have a sore throat. This would've been more newsworthy yesterday when I was actually off work because of it (and related symptoms) but there you go.

Bath House

2006-11-09T00:08:00.000+09:00

One of the "most do" things in Korea must be a visit to a bath house. I've never got around to it before now, for various reasons, but tonight I finally did. Since we only have a shower in our apartments, I was really looking forward to a nice soak in a bath for a change. The last time I did was when I went to the water park with Katie, and nice as that was, it wasn't very relaxing as there were so many people around. I think most of Korea's bath houses are variations on a theme: this one had four hot jacuzzis and spas (since I still don't know much Korea I couldn't really tell you the difference), two cold baths (which I was strangely drawn to, although the colder of the two was near-ice and actually not too pleasant) and two saunas, one wet and one dry (the latter being hotter, and my favourite of the two). I think there were other things on different floors of the building too, but we didn't have time. "We" is me and Christa, but I didn't actually see that much of her in the baths. Because of course the men and women are segregated as soon as you enter. Why? Because you have to do all this naked, did I not mention? I had been a little nervous beforehand (and yes, this may well be one of the 'various reasons' I hadn't been before), but honestly, once you're naked, the only weird thing is just how quickly you get used to it. I'm naked, you're naked, so what? There was one slightly awkward moment when another guy came and joined me in the sauna - are you supposed to acknowledge each other? Make small talk? I stared at the ceiling. Anyhow, it was all very relaxing and I shall certainly be back...

Can I really be getting hayfever in November?

2006-11-07T23:55:00.000+09:00

I wouldn't've thought so either, but it does feel that way...

Snow!

2006-11-07T00:05:00.000+09:00

For probably the first time since we got here, the temperature here was lower than that back home - only by a couple of degrees I think, but it was enough for it to snow! Although, not for a long, and it was pretty pathetic. The weather's pretty inconsistent here - this weekend we had some of the heaviest rain we've ever had here, but tomorrow's supposed to be sunny again, and by Wednesday we should be back up to a very pleasant 19 degrees (10 more than it is now). P.S. I'm so tired of always having an empty fridge! Getting my two main meals for free everyday means I hardly ever bother going shopping. In my fridge right now I have...two bottles of water, and...that's it. In a good week I sometimes have orange juice and milk. This is not a good week. Which is why I'm sat here eating peanut butter out of the jar. Off a knife. How depressing.

The Mudpuddle

2006-11-04T22:16:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was performance night for our theatre classes. It was not the complete disaster I had been anticipating, but that's not to say that I'm not glad it's over. My group were terrors. Individually they were all (mostly) decent kids, but together there was a very destructive group dynamic going on. I don't think I got through a single script read-through without at least on punch been thrown. And it was often the little girls beating up on the guys three years older than them so I was at a bit of a loss... We- well, they - handmade all their own props... This kid (the one in the middle if you couldn't guess) must have ADHD or something. He was the bane of my life this week. He alternated between three distinct personalities: comedian, violent hoodlum, and catatonic mental patient (my favourite, as at least he was quiet). One of my kids went home sick halfway through the week, but the show must go on, so I ended up being narrator number 2. I was just relieved he hadn't been playing the mud monster... And this is narrator number 1. English name: Undertaker.

Summit

2006-11-04T21:54:00.000+09:00

Finally today we reached the summit of Mount Bukhansan, and with perfect timing to see the autumn colours too - any later and there would've been no leaves left on the trees; as it was the trees were already getting pretty bare up near the summit. The foliage was pretty blazing. Christa came too, of course. At the summit, moments before accidentally throwing the wrapper from a packet of chocolate digestives over the edge of the cliff. How far do you have to go to get a bit of peace and quiet around these parts? This is queue to get to the summit...

Quarterly review

2006-10-30T21:28:00.000+09:00

Sorry, had the weekend off. We've now been here for an unbelievable four months. It sounds like a long time but still doesn't like more than a couple. I had a dream the other night that it was next summer and I had returned home. I couldn't work out why I could only remember a few months worth of adventures, I felt kinda short-changed. This month I have started having Korean lessons twice a week. Obviously we (I'm doing it with Christa) have a long way to go, but even just being able to ask the price of something in a shop (and understand the answer without them having to write it down) is a nice start.I'm really enjoying it even though I know it won't be of much use in eight months time. Maybe I'll learn Welsh next, at least then I can just pop over the border should I need a refresher. Emma leaves for ol'Blighty in 26 days. I dare say it'll be rather weird here for a while after she's gone, I dare say in ways I haven't yet imagined yet. On the bright side however, I'll gain sole ownership of the kettle. Plus, it may finally stop people who don't know us so well if we're a couple! This week we're running a special intensive program at the school. Since I'm still on evening shift, for me this involves striving to whip my kids into shape enough to put on a play (based on Robert Munsch's 'The Mud Puddle') by this Friday. Now my team aren't bad kids, but it's not a great reflection of them that I went straight from class to the store to buy beer. I'll let y'all know how it goes. The temperature has finally started to drop, but having said that it's still quite pleasant. Yesterday I was sat out in the sunshine in just a shirt watching the kids playing zombies (we had a special Halloween event this weekend but I wasn't working) up by the swimming pool. I'm told it will get very cold eventually though so I think some shopping is in order...

Korean War Memorial Museum

2006-10-27T21:30:00.000+09:00

I was luck enough to have a half-day off work yesterday, so I took myself off to the highly recommended Korean War Museum. I saw this public service information on the subway platform, along with a cabinet full of the gas masks themselves. Very reassuring. This is part of a protest I saw outside the museum. According to babelfish it means 'The army authorities unit previously do immediately!'. It may have something do with recent free trade negotiations with the US, but I can't swear. I didn't know what to make of this. I thought he must've died and just hadn't heard about it yet. Turns out he visited Seoul last week so I guess it's to do with that. Sadly this temporary exhibit was closed yesterday. Words of doom. This informative film about Korea's involvement in more recent conflicts was accompanied by the stirring tones of the Jurassic Park soundtrack. Aah, home...

Breaking News: Pyongyang warning to South Korea

2006-10-26T00:55:00.000+09:00

From the BBC:

North Korea has warned South Korea that its participation in the UN sanctions against Pyongyang [Democratic People's Republic of Korea's capital city] would be seen as a serious provocation. A spokesman for the country's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification warned it would lead to a "crisis of war".

More information here. BBC seems to be slightly behind the times at this second.

Korean Lessons

2006-10-25T23:32:00.000+09:00

I've had my first few Korean lessons now, and am being a complete geek about it. The lessons are really fun, and so I'm always doing extra study in my own time. I'm doing it along with Christa, who must be one of the most competitive people here: she doesn't like that I'm always reading ahead at all! We keep quizzing each other whenever we're out and about, and trying out little phrases on the kids (though we're not supposed to - rule number 1 on site is supposed to be 'NO KOREAN!' but it's good practice). So far our conversational repertoire is pretty much limited to 'what is your name?', 'what country are you from?', 'what do you do?', 'and what is this?'* but it's a start. *'이름 이 뭐예요?', '어느 나라 사람이에요?', '무슨 일 해요?', '그에 뭐예요?' It took me like 10 minutes to type that out in Hangul (the much-celebrated Korean writing system (they even get a national holiday out of it!)), and it now occurs to me that you may well not be able to read it anyway because of the Windows encoding that you may need. Dang. And then, of course, you not gonna be able to read it anyway...

DMZ

2006-10-22T22:32:00.000+09:00

I have survived my trip into

North Korea

unscathed. Despite the fears of some of the others (about a dozen, or maybe more of us ended up on the USO tour together) we felt very safe the entire time, despite the recent tensions with the North. Our military guide at Camp Bonifas - motto "In Front of Them All" - repeatedly said that everything was business as usual along the border. Maybe that's all he is allowed to say though. We were well protected though: there are many Republic of Korea guards along the border. Apparently to fit the requirements of the post they have to be a black belt in a martial art, and have to be of above average height, for maximum intimidation. It certainly works, as this guy in 'battle ready' position shows:

Sunglasses mandatory. This room is the Military Armistice Commission building, where the 1953 Armistice was signed by The United Nations, China and North Korea, thereby effectively ending the war. However, South Korea refused to sign (they did not want the country to be officially divided) hence they we are still technically at war.

The microphones and flags down the centre of the table mark the official border between the two countries. Steven on the left is in South Korea, the ROK guard is in the North. I'm straddling.

The building in the background here is North Korea's. Apparently the third floor was added in response to the building of The South's building opposite it (on the steps of which we're standing here). The South's was taller, so the North added a floor in order that theirs would be the tallest. If we zoom in on the steps of their building... Yes! They're watching us! How exciting! Unfortunately cameras are forbidden in many area, though it's hard to fathom why we were allowed to taken pictures here right in front of the North Korean guards, but none from the bus as we drove through fields of rice. We weren't able to take any from the Third Infiltration Tunnel either. The Tunnel is one of four so far discovered (up to ten are suspected) linking the North to the South. The third tunnel, discovered on October 17, 1978, would be capable of moving an entire division of their army to Seoul in an hour.

This is The Bridge of No Return and is the only bridge connecting the two states. It was used for prisoner exchanges at the end of the Korean War in 1953. The name originates from the fact that prisoners were given the choice to remain in the country of their captivity or cross over to the other country. But if they chose to cross the bridge, they would never be allowed to return.

On the tour bus home, with Vanessa. The 'war paint' was daubed on us all by Heidi in the tunnel. The Northerners painted the walls with patches of black so they could pretend it was a coal mine, but since it is made of granite anyway, this fooled nobody for long...

If anyone's interested in the full set of photos (still unlabelled, sorry), including the site of the 1976 Axe murder, and some very restricted views from the Dora observatory looking into North Korea, look here.

Random photos

2006-10-20T22:10:00.000+09:00

I've finally started learning Korean properly this week, and although I still only really know a handful of words, I do get a buzz when I manage to work out what something means, even though the kids laugh at us for having first grade textbooks. However, it's kinda tricky to represent the learning of Korean pictorially, so here's a picture of a horse, since I'm also trying to teach myself to draw better, using a book I borrowed off Rob a while ago, 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain': Next, a couple of photo's courtesy of Mary, from this last Friday night and another night a few weeks ago when we went out with some of the Korean staff: This last Friday when we went out we ended up at one of Seoul's infinitude of Singing Rooms for a couple of hours: basically it's karaoke but you get your own room, thus vastly limiting the pool of humiliation, which is nice. Great fun actually. And finally, to complete the randomity, some prettily dressed Kimono-clad Japanese ladies in Kyoto: And now I really must get to bed, even though it's Friday night and not yet half past ten - we're going to the DMZ tomorrow and we have to leave here at 5:45am...

Work in Progress

2006-10-19T23:55:00.000+09:00

Kane Sole

2006-10-18T00:43:00.000+09:00

A friend of mine a fellow teacher at SEV, Kane Sole, has just missed out on having one of his songs included on a promotional CD that is to be made by the website Sellaband. The website's premise is that members of the public buy 'shares' in artists that they like, and if/when that artist has $50,000 investment, the company will make and promote their CD. Kane's on $2240, but that's just after a month. The promotional CD was a one-time bonus I think - the top 10 acts on the site were to be included, and Kane was number 9 until the eleventh hour when he was bumped to 11. In sympathy with him, I thought I'd use today's post to give him a plug. So, please go here and at least have a listen to his music. If you like, read the FAQ and consider investing a few dollars. He really is pretty good - I find myself humming his tunes all the time anyway. Thank you.

40 days and 40 nights

2006-10-16T13:12:00.000+09:00

It's official: Emma is leaving. She's had enough. Enough of this job, enough of the food, enough missing her family, enough of this country. She's handed her notice in, her flight home is booked for November 25th, and as she has been doing pretty much ever since we arrived, she's counting down the days, if not yet the hours. However, as of yesterday Rob is here (Emma's old friend, and if you remember, the catalyst for our coming here in the first place) so at least I shall not be the only Brit.

Japan and the threat of Nuclear War

2006-10-15T13:00:00.000+09:00

On Sunday evening we arrived in Hiroshima, having spent most of the day travelling back from the wilds of Mount Fuji. We had just enough time to visit the Atomic Bomb Museum in the hour before it shut. In fact, we really didn't have enough time, so we went back on Monday morning to check out some of the temporary exhibits that we had missed the first time round. I found it a little disconnecting trying to tie the destruction on show everywhere inside the museum's walls with the modern, flourishing city that was on the outside. One of the temporary exhibits housed a selection of items sent in my Hiroshima survivors and their families: scraps of clothes, half-melted toys, a rusted old tri-cycle, lumps of fused glass, watches that had stopped at precisely 8:15 am when the bomb went off. I still feel that I'm ill-informed to making any educated judgements on the use of the bombs. I should know more. In the airport again at Fukuoka, waiting to check-in, we met a guy, a Texan, who was kinda like our Japanese counterpart. He was teaching English in Japan and was coming over to Korea for the week. He asked us if we'd been following the news for the past for the days. We hadn't, so were of course very shocked to hear that North Korea might be planning to test a nuclear bomb as early as the very next weekend. After all we had seen at the museum over the past two days, it was especially disconcerting to hear of this so close to home. Little did we know that they'd probably already gone ahead with the test. The shuttle bus we took back from the airport was luxurious enough to have a TV playing at the front, and though everything was in Korean, we could work out what had happened easily enough. Though I have registered my location with the British Embassy over here just in case the world should come to an end and I require evacuation, most of us are not immediately concerned. Last time the North attacked, their ranks were swelled immensely by the Chinese and Soviet forces. If they were crazy enough to try again, they would be alone (while we would certainly not be) at a time when they can't even feed themselves or light their homes. I am not afraid.

More Japan!

2006-10-13T13:40:00.000+09:00

Saturday Saturday was my favourite day. Finally we escaped the clutches of the city and found real peace at last. Amy was soon pining for the noise of civilisation again, but me and Christa were quite content. Most of the day was spent in transit on a multitude of trains and buses, but owing to the scenary, this was part of the joy of the day: Typically Amy slept through much of the journey. As soon as that girl's bottom hits a seat, she's asleep. First stop was a small town named Fuji Kawaguchiko, which may well be most popular for it's excellent views for Mount Fuji, although by the time we arrived the top was unfortunately shrouded in cloud... Because our legs really hadn't gotten enough excercise over the previous three days of constant walking, we hired out a 'swan' as the sun was going down, and peddled out over the lake to take a few pictures of the sun setting over the mountains. We finally made it to our accomodation - a traditional Japanese-style guesthouse - well after dark. Japanese-style means basically you get an empty room with a few straw mats and blankets and sheets to sleep under. Best nights sleep I'd had all week, but then, we were nearing exhaustion at this point. And as promised in the guidebook we were indeed greeted at the door by the owner's cute little dog... This place had a rather harsh TEN o'clock curfew, but since it was pretty much a one-horse town anyway with little to offer other than the obligatory shrine, we were content to grab some sushi in the restaurant next door (which we found despite our landlady's insistence that there were no Japanese restaurnats in town) and take some beer back with us again. After a delightful soak in the Japanese-style bath (my first proper bath in over three months!) and much beer and sleep-deprived giggling later, we slept soundly.

Japan part 2

2006-10-13T00:07:00.000+09:00

Owing in a large part to playing Frisbee and going out for frozen yoghurt, I haven't gotten any further with my photos yet today, but no matter, I'll get there. Friday The day started off by raining again, but it wasn't too cold, and it cleared up in the afternoon so mustn't grumble. We went to Kyoto. The guidebook recommended a visit to Kyoto Imperial Palace, but since that requires special permission in advanced, we settled for a stroll around the palace gardens instead, hoping to catch to glimpse of the autumn foliage. Maybe we were a couple of weeks early though as most of it remained resolutely green. After ice cream and lunch (with a modicum of getting lost in between), we made our way to a cluster of temples (and gardens, naturally) to get a little peace from the bustle of the city for a while. We even had chance to take part in a traditional-style Japanese tea ceremony in one of the temple, and we were shown the correct way to hold and admire one's cup so as to best compliment the host. We were unable to find anywhere to stay in Kyoto, so it was back to Osaka (and Gunter) for the evening. We went to an international beer festival, but shamefully left again without having a single beer between the three of us (it was expansive!) so we bought a bunch of fruit beers to take back to the hotel. We also stopped off on the way back to go on (one of?) the city's Ferris wheels - the Japanese really seem to dig their Ferris wheels. We had also had plans to go to some (naked!) Japanese baths today, but we got so carried away with all the walking around gardens that we never really had time. Maybe for the best...

Japan Lowdown part 1

2006-10-11T23:51:00.000+09:00

Progress slowly being made on the photos front. The first batch can be viewed here. Wednesday We flew out to Fukuoka on Wednesday afternoon. With the small exception of Amy's Visa initially being deemed inadmissible at the check-in counter (a second opinion at immigration assured us otherwise) everything went smoothly. We arrived at out hotel in the early evening and dropped off our bags. This was the most expensive accommodation of the week, but at least we all had our own rooms. We went out for a little walk round town, saw the first in a series of Japanese shrines... ...and went and ate noodles (see previous post). Following a line of pretty lanterns we soon found ourselves deep in the what with hindsight we believe to be the city's red-light district. Crowds of besuited Japanese businessmen loitered all around, while scantily dressed ladies handed out fliers in doorways. We quickly saw our error and retreated to find a bar. In what would become a recurring theme of the week, we failed to find any decent bars (or at least any in which we could afford to drink), so we grabbed a bottle of sake to drink back at the hotel before collapsing into bed. Thursday We got up early to catch the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka, our base for the next two days. We spent most of the day wandering around Osaka castle... ...and the surrounding grounds. As it rained for much of the day, this suited us pretty well. Highlights of the day include seeing a man parade his pet squirrel around the castle, and the mountain of sushi (previous post again) that we ate that night! While in Osaka we stayed in a hostel (actually in Shin-Osaka), so I was sharing a room with I think four others, but as we were always so late to bed (despite an 11 o'clock curfew) I only ever met one of them: a middle-aged German guy named Gunter, who I spent much of my stay trying to avoid...

Japanese Food.

2006-10-10T22:54:00.000+09:00

Since I spent the entire morning in bed catching up on a week's worth of sleep, I still haven't gotten around to sorting out my photos properly, so tonight, I'm just gonna focus on one aspect of our trip: the food. First of all, I would like to formally declare myself an official convert to Japanese cuisine. I loved pretty much every meal we ate, and thanks to Amy - who's from Taiwan and has been to Japan a few times already - we were able to try lots of different dishes in places where otherwise we wouldn't have even been able to read the menu. Even the airplane food was good, simple though it was - basically rice and shrimp with a few veggies and soy sauce (with which I'm also recently enamoured). Plus, free Ferraro Roche! Bonus! Our first proper meal in Japan was at a tiny little place in Fukuoka. It only had three tables, so I do wonder how they ever managed to wangle their way into the guide book, but it was so good. We all had ramen - light yellow noodles served in my case in a hot pork broth with spring onion. One thing I like about Japanese as opposed to Korean food (which is known for very strong, spicy, pungent flavours), is that you generally get to add soy sauce or chili seasoning to your own liking, so you can actually taste the underlying flavours, rather than just tasting *SPICE*. Thursday night in Osaka became Sushi Night. We ended up doing a little sushi crawl around the city, hunting out all the recommendations in the guides we had and trying a 'few' different types of sushi in each. And it was a revelation. I've bought sushi from the supermarket before, but this stuff was just on a whole other plane of existence. So fresh, so delicately flavoured with the soy sauce and wasabi (kinda like a Japanese horse-radish, though actually unrelated I think), I could've eaten nothing else all week. My favourite was tuna, but the salmon, egg, shrimp, mackerel and all the others I tried were all my favourites too. Like Korea, Japan's not huge on the desserts, but we did have a fair few helpings of ice cream through the week. The Japanese love anything green tea flavoured: you can get sweets, chocolate, biscuits, soft drinks, etc. They also have green tea ice cream, which I've never tried before though they sell it here in Korea too. Anyhow, it's yummy. Very refreshing. This was another of my favourites , eaten in Kyoto. I need to speak to Amy to find out what it's called. The main dish is a mixture of udon noodles, pork, tofu, onion and egg. I think there's other stuff in there two. Also, one of the side dishes (in the top-left) is a kind of fried soft tofu, a Kyoto specialty, and was wonderfully crisp on the outside, yet still soft inside. I want to go back just thinking about it. I love seeing food cooked in front of you too. Most of the sushi was made on the spot in front of us - and it's so quick! Sushi must be the ultimate fast food: just a handful of sushi rice and a slice of fresh fish and you're done. But in the other restaurants we visited, we still never seemed to be waiting more than five or ten minutes at the outside. On our finally night (in Hiroshima) we went to a building which housed a collection of mini-restaurants all devoted to Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake). Actually, I think it was called something slightly different, as Hiroshima has a local version. It's basically a thin pancake layered with cabbage, bacon, optional items (shrimp, ginger, pork, cheese, etc.), fried noodles, topped with a fried egg and a generous dollop of okonomiyaki sauce and spices. Very delicious, and very filling, though we manged to consume three of them between us (at three different restaurants again!) I think the only disappointing meal I had is when one of the hostels served us a 'Western' Style breakfast. The Japanese style were much better, but while I could happily sit here and describe every single meal I had over the six days, I really must unpack...

Prequel

2006-10-09T22:12:00.000+09:00

Konichiwa all! I am now back from Japan and in plain ol'Korea once again. Had a fab time, will debrief over the next few days. First I have five hundred or so photos to distill, and many hours sleep to catch up on. In the meantime, here's a few random pics to enjoy while you wait... Sianara (for now...)

On Leave

2006-10-04T00:17:00.000+09:00

Good day. I'm gonna be in Japan until Monday and am unlikely to update again before then. Have a good week. Bye bye.

Updates, miscillaneous

2006-10-02T23:02:00.000+09:00

OK, so the Lost Season Finale officially sucked according to the poll last week, but to be honest the sample size was really far too small for us to draw any statistically significant conclusions. I'll still be tuning into season three as soon as humanly possible anyway. I'm also throwing my weight behind a new show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which is just out in the US (won't be on in UK til 2007, I'm downloading it myself) - fans of The West Wing (possibly I'm just talking to my brother here) should check it out immediately, as it shares the same writer and producer (Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme), as well as half the cast, and from what I've seen so far it certainly matches the WW in the quality stakes. I'm going to try and sign up for Korean classes in the morning with Mary and Daniel! Ooh yay. I've learnt a very little already from books, CDs and the Rosetta Stone PC program, but lessons will be better. It's an intensive course, 5 mornings a week for the month, so bang go my lie-ins, but at least I'll be doing something productive. Japan travel itinerary has changed. In fact, did I ever even say where we were going? I forget. Fukuoka, Osaka, Kyoto, Mount Fuji, and Hiroshima. In five days. Tokyo didn't make the final cut as it's just slightly too far out, and it would be too much of a rush given the time we have, and we spend enough time in our own sprawling city as it is. We're very excited.

Ssamzie Sound Festival

2006-10-01T20:50:00.000+09:00

On Saturday, I went with Christa, Kane and Jimmy (don't be mislead by the nickname, he's actually Korean - they all have English names as well as their regular name). We didn't know any of the bands, though Jimmy says some of them were very famous. Go look.

Presents!

2006-09-28T23:04:00.000+09:00

The school bought us all presents for Chuseok! All the foreign teachers were given a Korean (green) tea set, while the Korean staff received food parcels containing such delicacies as tuna and Spam. I think we probably got the better deal.

Poll of the Day

2006-09-28T22:40:00.000+09:00

Right, let us settle this once and for all: was the Lost season 2 finale good as it always is, or, in the words of by brother, 'rubbish'? If you watched it then voting is mandatory. One vote per person.

Tri-monthly review

2006-09-27T22:59:00.000+09:00

Three months survived as of today! 25% of the way there already. Seems a lot, and yet kinda not that much too. I'm sure the long cold winter is gonna drag much more, but for now we're in the midst of what I'm told is an unseasonably warm spell. It still feels like midsummer. Homesickness is still absent I'm glad to say. My sources back home told me to expect it to kick in after the third month, but I remain cold-heartedly immune. Not everyone feels the same as me, I know some people are feeling the pull of home pretty strongly right now. Personally I'm quite happy to be here for now. If I'm honest, I did feel a few pangs of 'oh my god what have we done' in the first week here, especially when coming back to my empty room at night, but that soon evaporated. Next week is Chuesok, the Harvest Moon Festival, which is I think something akin to the American Thanksgiving. Everyone goes back home to visit their families, and they pay respect to their ancestors. The more significant factor for us teachers is that we get a week off work - probably the only full week I'm gonna get until next summer when I leave, and I'm especially excited as I'm going to Japan with Amy and Christa. A note of explanation: when I post the photos of the trip, don't be surprised to only see me and Christa in the photos - Amy has forbidden us to publish any of her online; I think she's either in witness protection or she's an international felon. Although I just said I'm quite happy here, I'm not sure that I would pick South Korea as my country of choice if I was to do this over again. I don't know where I would pick, but Seoul is so commercialised, that really it feels that this could be any (densely populated) city in the world sometimes, save for the language differences. Maybe that's unfair though. I've yet to venture beyond the city (as have most of us) so I guess that's like judging the whole of the UK on a few months spent it London. I guess the answer is to get out more. That shall be mission for the next month. Another goal I'm setting for myself is to keep up with the Korean lessons. I haven't had any proper lessons yet - our schedules fluctuate so much it's a little hard to plan - but I've just got a computer program that I'm trying to spend an hour a day on. So far I've not used much more than a hello or a thank you 'in the wild' but I haven't been intensely practicing before this past week so I hope to improve soon. Oh, and Emma's definitely staying. For the time being.

Climbathon photos

2006-09-26T23:28:00.000+09:00

Here are the photos from Sunday's climbing exbidition. There are Christa and Anne's photos in there too. Next target is Mout Fuji next week!

Flashback

2006-09-25T21:12:00.000+09:00

To answer a comment left my my brother, we never did get to the DMZ. The bus never turned up to pick us up. Maybe I'd left it too late to book, I don't know, but I got an email the day after saying that my reservation had been declined, no reason given. I will go at some point so wasn't that bothered for myself, but it was one of the only things that Katie had really wanted to do while she was here, so she was disappointed. It was Sunday when we tried to go, they don't do the tours on Mondays and Katie was flying home on the Tuesday, so that was that. And I don't have any pictures of the water park as for the most part we didn't have the camera with us (not waterproof, see?) - Katie did take a couple of videos: there's a thrilling one of me on the lazy river here that you can take a peek at; there would've been anthoer one that Katie took of me on the death slide, but it turns out she was holding the camera on it's side the whole time, and you couldn't really see me anyway...

Climbathon

2006-09-24T22:27:00.000+09:00

We did not win the hiking competition. We never stood a chance as the crazy Koreans that did win ran all the way up and straight back down again; the six of us made a determined start together and did our best to get at least to the head of the family section that we foreigners began with, but we couldn't maintain the pace for long. Three of the girls dropped back almost straight-away and we didn't see them again for two hours when we were on the way down again. Christa set a frantic pace for me and Anne which we all kept up for a while, but once it became apparent that we were never gonna win, I dropped back and ambled up slowly the rest of the way, so at least I got to enjoy the views. Any remaining hopes I did have were utterly dashed when a bunch of Koreans, leaping from rock to rock like mountain goats, passed me going back down again. Anyway, I caught the others up at the checkpoint where they were munching their sandwiches and kimbap. The Koreans were always gonna win anyway. They take it very seriously, or at least the Seoulites I've seen do. They're always decked out in all the proper gear: proper climbing boots and gloves, visors for the ladies, walking poles, and their clothes are made from the latest futuristic materials to keep them cool. Oh, and it's all colour coordinated of course. But we did get a bunch of free stuff for taking part: new backpack (I bought one only yesterday!), t-shirt, Union Jacks to fly on the ascent, bottle of water, 2kg bag of soil (we never did find out why, we just dumped it as directed), many tissues, and certificate for taking part. Mine reads 'Ryan James', but still. I was 156th (out of how many I don't know), with a time of 3 hours, 45 minutes and 19 seconds for the 12km. And! After chatting for a while with his aide, we got our photos taken with the major or our district! Better photos to come when I get chance to swap mine with Christa and Anne's selection, for once I didn't take that many myself...

Proper Mountaineering

2006-09-22T18:27:00.000+09:00

On Sunday there's a special hiking festival going on in town; the school are paying for ten of us to take part so how could I say no? It was initially said to be 8km, which is not so bad as we did about 5km last time anyway. Apparently it's actually 12km, which is a little more daunting but should be okay. And there's a prize for first to the top, which is nice, but with a thousand people taking part I won't get my hopes up too much. The odd thing is that we each have to take up 2kg of soil with us. Altogether that's like 2 tons (if you were struggling with the math). There is no explanation given as to why, so your guess is as good as mine. I'll let you know.

Sports Day

2006-09-20T21:46:00.000+09:00

These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago; at the end of the summer programme the Powers That Be threw a sports day/barbeque to thank us for all our hard hard work. I appointed myself Official Photographer of the games, so I may as well share a couple of the photos with you...

No, I don't know why they decided to play in the pool.

If you were wondering, the second 'sport' in dodgeball.

Sadly I missed the drunken karaoke as I had to leave to pick Katie up from the airport, but perhaps that's for the best.

And for the record, 'we' (being the foreign teachers) won every event.

Bye Bye Katie

2006-09-19T17:00:00.000+09:00

After a fortnight full of adventures, Katie has left me. Well she actually left me more than 12 hours ago, but she won't touch down for a few more yet, poor girl. And since she'd used up all of the reading matter she brought with her, all she has to entertain on the flight is my mostly unread copy of Wuthering Heights. With the sheer bustle of Katie being here, I never got around to mentioning the mini-drama of Katie's 'eviction'. I haven't gotten around to mentioning a lot of things, but I'll start to rectify that now. We're only allowed to have guests stay with us for a paltry two nights at a time (though they may come back after a gap, as Katie did following her jaunt to Jeju Island last week). This is either because of the shocking amount of electricity that guests are presupposed to use, or 'to protect the children'. Either way stinks, so in protest, I neglected to sign Katie with security for the first couple of days, hoping that if they carried on being so lax, maybe I could spin out her term here a little longer. This was working fine until she went out on her own, and made the mistake of making eye contact with the guards. After a twenty minute interrogation (during which she tried repeatedly to call my mobile phone, which was switched off), I was summoned for an explanation. I had a bit of a hoo-ha with my boss, who was mostly just annoyed as I'd not given her the exact dates of Katie's visit, but it wasn't too big of a deal. Or it wouldn't've been had Katie not then stopped for a further three nights. When I let slip to Erin that Katie was still here on day six, she was mad. Senior teacher Braden came a-knocking at my door first thing next morning, basically saying that she had to leave ASAP. Hence the crappy (but cheap) cockroach-infested hostel she ended up in.

Having Katie living halfway across the city from me served as a blunt reminder as to how we used to have to live before mobile phones were invented. How did we ever get by? How did anyone of previous generations have social lives? Twice me and Katie were an hour late for meeting each other (she because she gt the time wrong, me when I overslept), and with no way to communicate we were left there twiddling our thumbs waiting impatiently for the other. Anyhow, it was great having her here, and I am sad to see her go, though at least I have finally been able to tidy up my bedroom. There's been stuff (hers and mine) lying around stressing me out for days. I've actually had a minor rearrangement of my room today; since I never watch my telly I've put it underneath my desk, which means, oh joy, that I can actually sit on a chair in front of my laptop rather than perching on the end on the end of my bed with a twisted nerve in my neck as usual.

Also don't forget to check out Katie's website for a few more pictures and a few fun videos which I never got around to posting myself.

Annyonghi kaseyo Katie.

Have you had rice?

Being a Tourist

2006-09-16T23:27:00.000+09:00

Katie's back from Jeju Island so I've become a tourist agian. Today we went to Caribbean Bay (a water park, and I'm sure I read somewhere the 7th best theme park in the world but maybe not) which was lots of fun. 13 water slides, one of which is almost vertical. And saunas! And hot spas! And salt baths and sulphur baths and acid baths! It's the closest I've been to a bath at all in three months! Delicious. Photos (and videos?) to follow - they were taken on Katie's camera - which she may have broken... Tomorrow we're going North to the DMZ, so expect another history lesson, and if we're allowed to take any at all, losts of photos too.

Food

2006-09-15T23:47:00.000+09:00

For nigh on three months I have been craving and resisting a certain chocolate dessert, Chocolate Thunder, in this Outback restaurant in town; tonight I went there finally with the singular intent of consuming said treat. Essentially a chocolate brownie piled high with vanilla ice cream and regular cream, I was most disappointed. Artificially cream, and I don't know what was up with the brownie but texturally it certainly lacked something. Give me frozen yoghurt and fruit any day. Most of the dinner conversation revolved around British/American/Canadian gastronomic differences. Everyone looked pretty aghast at the sight of me eating a piece of bread with a couple of fries on top, so of course we had to explain the whole chip butty concept. Potted beef seemed a bit alien to them too, although one of the Americans offered up the notion of something called a 'Solomon Gundy' (a pureed fish dish) prompting Emma to burst in to the rhyme, which nobody else had every heard of. Interestingly (if you're me), I've just pulled this from Wikipedia:

Solomon Grundy [the rhyme] is believed to have derived from the English food Salmagundi, which was integrated into the English language from the French in the 17th century, and is a salad of cooked meats, lettuce, anchovies and eggs, with other condiments. The name of the salad was corrupted in the 18th century to Solomon Gundy, particularly in the United States

Business as usual

2006-09-14T23:30:00.000+09:00

Rightio, thank you for your patience gentle reader, I am now back from my little sabbatical. I was going to be back yesterday, but then I became unexpectedly drunk and could not type. Yesterday a couple of girls in my class called England 'gentleman country'. I asked if that made me a gentleman, but apparently I did not meet their definition. I think my jeans and shoes were the first giveaway, but also I have 'farmer hair', and of course, what respectable English Gentleman would be seen out in society without his trusty umbrella? Tenuously following the England link, I met an 80-year-old Korean man on the bus yesterday, who told me that he studied poetry for a year at Sheffield University in 1960/61; I think it's the first time since I arrived here that I've met anyone at all that had heard of Doncaster so I was very impressed. He could even remember going through our train station! I think I let him down a little though - he kept name-dropping various eminent scholars and poets he had worked with over there, but I'd not heard of any of them...

55 photos of hills

2006-09-14T22:24:00.000+09:00

Here's what you've all been waiting for! Or not so much. Go, look.