Sunday, April 27, 2008

Olympic torch makes it to Seoul

As I took the bus through central Seoul today we battled our way through streets lined with hundreds of Chinese overseas students clad in the red flag waving banners proclaiming peace and love as the Olympic flag made its way to South Korea.

Actually, I didn't know those details at the time. I just assumed it was just a big anti-protest thing - but I guess it was. The Chinese people have emerged to let us know that their country is promoting well-being in this time of world unity. Despite threats of Seoulites staging a protest, police, tight security, and masses of Chinese supporters appear to have won the day.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

The Ballerina Who Loves A B-Boy

In the basement of a building in the university area of Hongdae lies a jeering audience twice a day as Korea's top B-Boys strut their stuff to the storyline of an aspiring ballerina who caves to the awesomeness that she beholds.

I, too, was enthralled. I wonder where I can pick me up one of these fine men... ;)

Video quality isn't great, and can only re-live a fraction of the magic that was, but it would be treacherous not to share what little I can offer of this totally awesome experience. (Do you reckon I liked it?!)

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Suwon fortress

Yesterday was a perfect day for a stroll around the ancient Suwon fortress. (On a quick weather note, every day at the moment would be perfect. The sun shines, t-shirts are out, and sometimes you can catch a cool breeze to ease the ever warming heat. Summer will be a killer...and it's sad that I've heard spring just doesn't last that long.)

Suwon is another city just south of Seoul, but is still covered by the subway line so made for an easy day trip. Even though it still has a backdrop of high rise apartment blocks, it felt less manic than downtown Seoul with a far more friendly atmosphere to the place. Our taxi driver over to the fortress was certainly very excited to find some Brits to talk footie with, opposed to the Americans/Canadians he said there was lots of (and there are. I think I've met a mere two fellow UK citizens since being in Korea). Not that he was getting much more than smiles and nods of agreement, the driver seemed happy enough to be chatting away to us in Korean.

Anyway, the fortress wall is pretty much fully intact (though naturally it has been restored since its construction in 1794) and makes a complete loop of the inner city. It took us a couple of hours to do the walk at a relaxed pace.

There were several men wandering round in traditional guard-like garb, as well as couples and families alike making the most of the beautiful Saturday afternoon.


Ladies smell the springtime flowers while shading themselves from the harsh sun with a parasol. Wouldn't want to upset that sought-after pure white skin.


Old men (and less old men) can be seen all over Seoul - evidently in Suwon too, and I guess the rest of the country - working out in these public parks with the free exercise equipment.


Coming face to face with this guy through a window gave us both a shock as we were walking round on opposite sides of the wall. Him more so when I got out my camera.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Weekend in Jeonju

WorknPlay, the recruiting company who originally arranged our trip to Korea, hosted a trip to the traditional hanok village in Jeonju this weekend. Normally I scorn bus loads of tourists who get off, snap some pics, and get back on the bus feeling like they've "experienced" the country, but for ₩30,000 to include travel, accomodation, food AND activities, it seemed a small price to pay (boom boom) for a bit of outside-Seoul adventure.

I guess there is a reason why the LP only gives Jeonju a single page of listed activities, but being on the aforementioned tour, we probably got to do a whole lot more than if we'd attempted it as independent travellers.

What we did:

- We made our own bibimbap. Jeonju is particularly famous for its unique style of bibimbap. I'm not exactly sure how it differs from other places, since as far as I can tell one day some guy decided to chuck all his vegetables in a hot bowl of rice, mix it with some hot sauce and make it a national dish. Anyway, it tasted good. Maybe not the best I've ever had as it was supposed to be, but certainly not the worst. That might have been the one we had in Itaewon that was recommended by the Lonely Planet.

- We watched a local girl playing some traditional harp-like instruments, and some men story-telling in the art of traditional Korean singing. The word "traditional" is going to be used even more in this post. Beware.

- We made boxes in the style of hanji - a traditional Korean paper art form. It was good to be on the receiving end of the arts and crafts lesson. The contest at the end for who had made the best box actually turned out to be self-nominees followed by a rock, scissor, paper competition. This is not an uncommon method for sorting difficult situations out for children and adults alike.

- There was a small festival going on with many Korean ladies dressed in hanbok (traditional dress) making tea and ricecakes. We were invited to look around and join in. We learnt the correct method of drinking tea (hold cup on palm of left hand and sip with right hand three times) while sitting cross legged under gazebos.

- We slept on the floor of a traditional Korean-style house (hanok) with the ondol (underfloor heating) on full blast. Even though most of Korea is still heated in this way, I reckon many people have proper beds these days. Still, sleeping on the floor wasn't a problem, but the rock solid (bean-filled, I'm sure) pillows were more of an issue for me.

- During the festival there was a mammoth 100-person bibimbap being made. This involved many of the local community getting their chefs hats on with industrial sized wooden spoons before doling it out to the masses. Or at least, one hundred of them.






Anyway, so that was our weekend in a rather large nutshell. Certainly nice to get away for a bit, meet some other foreigners (and hear about how most of them have unfortunate working conditions too, making us feel mildly better about our situation), and get a hands-on "traditional experience". Not sure I'd recommend it as a travelling hotspot, though.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Cherry blossoms, umbrellas, and the biggest church in the world

So it would seem that I will not be Korea's next weather girl. Despite grey cloudy skies, I thought - in the spirit of my earlier spring-time post - that I would venture out with no jacket nor umbrella. Mistake. The latter half of the afternoon decided to spit a few drops down, and, having tested the water (so to speak), decided it was time for a large downpour. It continues.

Nevertheless, wanting to take advantage of the day off work, I met Lauren and we headed to Yeouido - again. This time, there were certainly blossoms blooming with joy. There was also a large host of umbrellas. So that was why there was a queue at the bench in the subway station with a photograph backdrop and fake cherry trees. We did wonder why they didn't just go outside and picture themselves with real blossoms.

Wanting to reach the long-awaited festival, we opted to follow the big crowd of umbrellas. They took us down the main street of trees, but save a few photographers and food sellers, I'm not sure I'd call it much of a festival. Perhaps blossoms and sunshine are necessary to bring the whatever-it-is-I'm-expecting out. They say that there will be fireworks on the last day. But not having official dates for this thing will make it difficult to attend without camping out there for the rest of the month.


Still, the multitudes led us right to Yeouido Full Gospel Church - the largest church in the world. It seemed distinctly closed, but we managed to find a way up via a long corridor and a back door lift. It was big. If I'd not known better, I'd have put it in the 5 biggest. But no, it has the largest congregation in the world. So that's quite a number of churches it's competing with there.

Revelling in the springtime

This is where it's at. Waking up with the window fully open and still feeling warm enough to jump out of bed raring for a new day. Back at home it would be the noise of lawnmowers and chirping birds to invite me outside. Here it is the faint hum of distant traffic and the occasional train. But it's all the same. Spring is well and truly here.

To make things even better - and for once that phrase isn't being used sarcastically - we negotiated some things with our boss on Monday. OK, so we had to basically threaten to quit if things didn't get better, but at least she conceded that yes, after our classes have finished, providing we've prepared everything we need to for th
e next day/week/month/year, we can leave. One small victory for the English department.

Furthermore, today is election day. And unlike their northern counterparts, South Korea is so in love with democracy that they give the country a day off to vote. Can't say fairer than that.

T-shirts that just capture the mood perfectly.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

The foothills of Dobongsan

It's been five months, and somehow or other we'd totally bypassed that really huge mountain just behind our apartment. Dobong mountain is part of Bukhansan National Park - one of the most popular in Korea. The cold weather has been a perfect excuse not to get up there, but with spring now in full flow I'm not sure we'll be able to use that much longer.

This afternoon we just thought we'd take a bit of a wander, and ended up walking right through the foothills of the mountain. The fresh air and t-shirt temperatures coupled with blooming flowers and crispy fallen leaves made for a much needed stroll away from the groan of traffic from below.

When we reached flat land again, we weren't exactly sure
where we were coming out. There was a stream running and a plot of land divided into allotments for people to plant seeds. There were many shabby old buildings with corrugated iron roofs, looking totally out of place next to the high rise apartments in the distance - and these are just down the road from where we live. It was like we'd stepped out of Seoul and into the countryside of Korea.

The flowers and leaves made for a perfectly aimless wander.


Families tend to their seedlings on a sunny Sunday afternoon.


This stream that runs just past our apartments was unrecognisable outside of its city-like surroundings.

Cherry blossoms and Yeouido Park

According to the Tour2Korea website, the Yeouido cherry blossom festival was supposed to start this week.

The weather today was pre
tty gorgeous - if a little hazy - but it hasn't been like this every day lately so I'll admit I was dubious whether the flowers would actually have blossomed just yet. It turned out some of them have done, but certainly not all, and there wasn't any sign of a festival going on. Someone told me that the festival will happen, but maybe not for another week or two. Shame these things are so weather dependent.

Still, there were tonnes of people about hiring bikes (or tandems for the couples, and there were certainly many of them about) or inline skates for their own cruise along the river. I do fear the summer somewhat - it was verging on muggy today and spring is only just beginning. Humidity is certainly not my (nor many people's) favoured weather condition. Anyway, must make the most of the blue skies and shirt-sleeve breezes while they're about...

This was the queue for bike rental:


I have no idea what these guys were up to, but they had funny wigs.

Friday, April 4, 2008

A verbal ramble,

as opposed to a ramble in the woods. But that'd be nice too, were there to be any woods in Seoul. There are parks around, not that I've ventured to any of the bigger ones - yet. But there are mountains - plenty of mountains - but again, despite there being a big one just down the road, I'm yet to get my hiking boots on.

I guess my reason for this inane post is because I don't really have a reason. But I've been meaning to give an update on our working situation for a while now (but it's so demoralising), so here it goes.

The whole working 9 to 6 thing kind of sucks. But I'm over it, nearly. What sucks more is that we've been in Korea over five months now and we're only just getting settled. OK, so our ride has been less than smooth, but what's an experience in Korea without a hagwon closing down on you, running away from a school who tricked you into working without signing a contract, then slogging out at a kindergarten with no other English speakers?

I know that we experienced lack of communication issues at our old hagwon; I mean, it closed within a month of us arriving for a start...who told us that was going to happen?! But in a way it was kind of amusing to see what new stories we'd hear each day. But when it becomes a daily pattern, it gets a little tiring.

The thing is, is because this is the first year that this school has had English lessons and/or teachers, (English teachers you pedant), we have sole responsibility over everything remotely English related. Except we don't! We plan all our lessons, we write all our plans, we make all our materials, just like good little angelic teachers. And WHAM! SMACK! "You should arrange your classroom this way," or, "Oh, no, I think too hard for children," or, "By the way, we have no English lessons tomorrow."

Another thing is that because it's still a Korean school, the kids aren't forced to speak in English in our lessons. The "NO KOREAN" tactic just hasn't taken off here, since I'm not sure they even understand that. They don't understand when they are being reprimanded and think it's funny when I say I'm angry. It's not totally surprising when each kid is only getting between 20 and 60 minutes of English learning in a day. Sure, there are these new afternoon lessons that are supposed to mirror a hagwon style environment, but the kids see these as an excuse to run around in our classrooms after their hard slog of singing songs at kindergarten.

All in all, after all that job hunting over Christmas, we landed ourselves with a less than ideal job. We'll know better next time. "Next time," she scoffs.

I sense this post has turned a little sour since its nice rambly outset. It's not all bad. We came to Korea to have fun, relax, and a cultural experience. The latter we've definitely had, if not in all the best ways. But the sun is coming out these days more and more, and that certainly makes the job worth going in for, if only to enjoy coming out to a bright day at the end of it.

My Korean learning hasn't been going that well lately, but in the spirit of good intentions, I hope that April will bring with it much practice and motivation. It's supposed to be the start of the Yeouido cherry blossom festival now so hopefully the streets will start to look pretty, and next weekend we're heading out with WorknPlay - our original recruiting agency - to the city of Jeonju.

Oh! And yesterday we found out that next Wednesday is voting day - so no work! (Nice of them to let us know when they all found out, *grumble grumble* :D) The campaigns around here have certainly been eye catching, generally involving keen followers dancing and singing the number of their chosen candidate. I don't even know what they're being elected for, but I will welcome the unexpected day off.

For now, I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of Spring and is not too stressed with their own jobs/dissertations/looming exams. Roll on the sunshine!