My weekend food story.

(In Tintin Style) "It all started when... I went with Brian for breakfast on the Yongsan US Army base on Saturday morning. It has become a bit of a running joke that two minutes after I receive my food, Brian will look over and find my plate empty. For a little person one wonders where it all goes, but perhaps after three fat slices of Texas style French toast and sausage topped with whipped butter and maple syrup, "little person" will no longer be an accurate description.

"Now this breakfast was full in the knowledge that I'd be meeting one of my cousins for lunch in Apgujeong. She wanted to meet to exchange some gifts, and as far as it was nice to see her, the language barrier rather stinted conversation somewhat. Still, what communicates better than food, so we went for sushi rolls. It was good, if my stomach wasn't groaning a little.

"So the afternoon plan was to meet up with my multi-national group of friends for some bowling on base, but Jaideep, being from that huge terrorist threat of a country -- Singapore -- was shouted down and escorted away. Rather than leave him stranded we went to Ho Lee Chow in Itaewon for Chinese food. So Mr Lee sure does some good chow, but being the third meal out in day the rate of consumption was slowing on my part. You'd've thought this would be the last meal of the day. But no. I decided to skip salsa class that evening (shock :O) in favour of Brian's dance partner's birthday party. Little did I realise that this would involve a full sit down Italian meal. The exercise probably would have been a better option, but I'm sure the drinking followed by dancing at Caliente compensated, right?

"Sunday we - the Brit, the Canadian, the American, the Korean, the German and the Singaporian - met up in Hongdae for some Indian-?-style curry. After wandering the quirky clothing stores we wandered back in the direction of our usual hangout in Itaewon. There we met Jenny, who in her busy work/study schedule, managed to fit us in so we could celebrate her birthday. Baskin Robbins icecream cake and noraebang all the way baby! We didn't realise we were going with an actual professional jazz singer, but this didn't put the guys off doing possibly the worst rendition (and that's saying something) of Bohemian Rhapsody. :

"To top the weekend off, we went for Thai food at a local haunt. I'm not sure Brian's warning that anyone-to-split-food-with-me-should-claim-their-share-well-in-advance-for-fear-of-not-getting-any-food-at-all was needed in this instance. The company was great, but I think we were all rather bursting at seams by this point. But it sure was a multi-national food induced weekend with a wonderful group of multi-nationals to share it with^.^"

Digging for potatoes

It's been a busy month with Halloween decorations going up left, right and center in preparation for the "Halloween Fun Day" next Saturday - yes, that's right, Saturday - where all children and parents will come and bob for apples, among other activities. Rain was forecast for today, so I prepared an exciting pumpkin craft to stick around my classroom, but luckily the sun shone on brightly facilitating the planned sweet potato dig.

We went somewhere out and beyond Uijeongbu (i.e. out and beyond the north of Seoul) to a lone sweet potato patch somewhere in the middle of some farmland. I don't know if this is kindergarten owned land, or a random patch that the bus driver decided would be a good place for potato digging. Nonetheless, we all got our hands mucky pulling apart potatoes for the kids to take home. Much like the mass-production-bat-making lines Marie and I have been instigating in the classroom, this seemed rather like child labour as the bus driver shouted commands and urged faster picking. No prizes for guessing what's on next week's menu at school.

Simon's in Busan at the moment, but tomorrow morning - after David's birthday party tonight and thus a potential struggle out of bed and aching head - I will meet him four hours out of Seoul in Andong. It's famous for its soju, traditional masks and meat, so hopefully there will be much relaxing and won't be too hardcore on the sight-seeing...

Chuseok: discovering the wonders of the Seoul bus system

I take the bus three stops down the road every day to work, turning a 40 minute walk into a five minute ride. Other than this I've found the subway to be very convenient for taking me elsewhere in the city; it's clean, fast, and all the maps have English translations. I've even heard other foreigners go so far as to wonder why you would ever need to take a bus, and that they wouldn't know how.

After having had my attention turn to this convenient website (use with IE), I've started to be more adventurous with my bus travel. Travelling south of Seoul for the Korean harvest festival - Chuseok - to visit family, it was a good opportunity to avoid a four-transfer subway trip in favour of a direct bus all the way there.

Regarding the holiday, hanging out in the countryside was definitely what I needed after a long stint in Seoul, but I did feel mildly awkward not being able to follow my hosts' break-neck speed conversations! With an extra day off on Monday to play with, I went to see Mamma Mia: the Movie with my cousin. Once I got over how incredibly lame the storyline is, it was actualy quite entertaining. And just to note: I love popcorn in Korea! Having a mix of salted and caramel HOT popcorn is a much better idea than drying out your mouth with just one or the other that British cinemas insist you eat!

Things I haven't done for a while

I mentioned my dislike for Itaewon, but it certainly has its perks. On Friday night David asked me what I wanted to eat for dinner. I said bangers and mash. You can get "sausage" here in Korea, but often it's the processed frankfurter type. I certainly have not had mashed potato in nearly a year. Gecko's Terrace it was then. It's all about the gravy.

I also mentioned it is leaving season. Another friend is off on Wednesday so some mutual friends threw her a small get together at the Ritz-Carlton in Gangnam on Saturday night. I haven't hung out at a private party drinking wine and listening to music since being in Korea. Admittedly Koreans tend to live with their parents and teachers tend to live in tiny studio apartments, so going out tends to be a more practical option than staying in. I don't think I've really even drunk wine in Korea - it's all been about the cheap Cass lager. But last night the weather was gorgeous; perfect for a bit of socialising among good friends and balcony dancing.

Another (another) friend just returned to Korea after two months at home, so it was back to Itaewon for some dancing at the Hard Rock Cafe. Most people I meet here say that they drink far more than they ever did at home. My lager intake has certainly gone up, but my all night partying (and tequila intake) has taken a down slide since uni. Last night was an exception though. Apart from salsa, I don't go out clubbing that often. But it was great. Haven't danced like that in a long time.

I watched The Mummy then everyone left.

After mentioning a throw-away thought of holidaying to Egypt next year, Ian gave me a look of fear as he told me he was scared of scarabs. This look was nothing however compared to the look of horror he gave when he realised the reference was lost on me. With The Mummy 3 imminent to Korean cinema screens, we bought the two prequels (I think this particular subway seller was actually legit) to aid my impending education.

Being a big fan of Egypt, Rachel Weisz and American jokes, they went down well. The latest film, however, unfortunately misses out on the beautiful lead actress, and although we came up with some plausible explanations, Alex's cut-sharp English accent was disappointingly replaced with an all-American one. On top of this, the plot was poor. Basically they revived the mummy far too early and I fell asleep during the action. With the film set in China, none of my reasons for liking the earlier films were fulfilled in this one.

So that was Ian's last night in Seoul. I packed him off on the City Limousine Bus (it's just as plush as it sounds) on Tuesday morning to Incheon airport, tried not to get too teary as a further half year of long-distance-relationship looms, and set about enjoying Lauren's last night in Seoul.

Earlier in the day Lauren had met with her now ex-boss, who'd kindly loaded her off with some cash to splash on her last day. After packing and re-packing a year's worth of accumulations (let's not even think about how much stuff got sent home; I'm thinking of having a clear-out soon) we went to a fancy sushi bar. One of those all-you-can-eat buffet places. We agreed that Korea definitely does buffet restaurant a lot classier than England. For some reason they threw a mental when I wanted to take pictures of the food, though.

As a last-night memento we also went to one of Korea's many sticker booths. With make-up shops and face-rollers to slim down your cheeks rife, it is little wonder that Koreans are obsessed with taking photos of themselves. It's not uncommon to see people on the streets/subway/drinking coffee with their phones out posing for self-pics. I guess sticker booths just aid this obsession. They're just like ID photo booths, except there are wigs and hairbands to try on, and you can decorate the photos afterwards with pretty backgrounds and borders.

So that was Lauren's last night in Seoul. I packed her off on the City Limousine Bus (still plush) this morning to Incheon airport where my unexpected tears appeared as my Korean-adventure friend set forth for the security gates and beyond. I'll miss her tonnes and I wish her all the best back in the UK...and I guess I'd better get used to the idea that the holidays are over and it's back to work tomorrow!

West Sea Isles: Getting Away From It All

Tiring of the rain in Seoul, following a reliable Google forecast for further showers in Incheon, that's where we headed on Tuesday afternoon.

We took line 1 of the Seoul subway the full two hours to the last stop of Incheon to be greeted with a scorcher of a day. Shying of imminent sunburn we enjoyed a late lunch served by genuine Chinese people immersed in a sea of red in Incheon's China Town. I know they were Chinese because they weren't speaking Korean.

Full to the brim with pseudo-Chinese food (I hear that the popular 'Chinese' dish jajangmyun was invented here in Korea's China Town) we took a very slow crawl up to the top of Freedom Hill where we found a statue of US General MacArthur who led South Korea into victory against the North back in the days of the Korean War. Surrounded by flowers and a beaming sun, we spied on a nearby couple doing the couply thing of snapping posed pictures of beautiful girlfriend in front of beautiful flowers behind huge camera lens. People seem big on photography here, and nearly everyone has a big SLR camera. If you have a girlfriend I'm sure it's like an unwritten rule that you must photograph her, with as big a lens as possible. That's just what I've noticed.

Now by the time we'd taken our really slow wander round Incheon city walking off our really huge lunch and watching guys take photos of girls with really huge cameras, it was a bit late to make it to the islands off the coast. Instead we made the alleged twenty minute walk to Wolmido Port in around forty minutes. Being predominantly main road lined with factories I'd probably recommend the recommended five minute taxi ride next time.

Save the Korean drummers in drag bouncing up and down to Korean pop music, we could easily have been walking the sea front of Blackpool. I was impressed at how few the crowds were considering this is the Korean summer holiday (and they generally don't get a whole lot of that). Maybe this just isn't a prime holiday spot, but that works for me.

Having heard a rather large downpour overnight we took a lazy start on Wednesday morning before pouring hot water into our instant coffees at the nearest convenience store. We took the 3000 won ferry (with Koreans intent on feeding their corn chips to the gulls) across to Yeongjongdo (home to Incheon International Airport), waited a half hour before swiping our T-money cards on bus 222 to take us to Jamjindo wharf before getting another 3000 won ferry over to the little island of Muuido.

We were lucky that it was only intermittently spitting during the day and was otherwise a pleasant sort of overcast. We hopped on the local bus across the island to Hanagae beach where - after a huge bowl of kalguksu (shellfish and noodle soup) - we flitted between frolicking in the water and lazing on the sand. We were definitely the only foreigners to be seen, but no one seemed to mind I wasn't swimming in my clothes like many of the other women. The evening brought low tide where the water seemed to instantly disappear, leaving behind a huge stretch of shellfish ridden wet sand. It was absolutely beautiful to walk across and to look confusedly at the various crawling sea life between our toes.

We were offered a lift back to the ferry port by an eager university student (and his less eager girlfriend) ready to practise his English. It was very kind of him and saved us a bus journey. Back on Yeongjongdo we justified the 13000 won Airport City Limousine Bus that would take us right to our doorstep by the fact that we'd have otherwise had to fork out for accommodation for the night. Escaping the sounds of Seoul, not seeing another white person for two days and breathing in fresh sea air, it really did feel as though we were well and truly Getting Away From It All.

Health warning

As I put the remaining frankfurters into the refrigerator, I am reminded of the fact that earlier this evening, I ate plastic. I didn't just chew for a while and spit out in disgust. I thought it was food, and I swallowed.

So I bit into the sausage. "This is very chewy," I thought. "Am I supposed to cook this first?"

Only when I got to the last mouthful I noticed a filmy texture in my mouth. Lo and behold, what did I pull out but a chewed up morsel of cling-film-esque sausage sheath.

Now when these sausages are coming in a vacuum packed package in the first place, why is it then necessary to wrap each one individually? And in what? Clear plastic? They really ought to write that on the wrapper.

Taking the bullet to Pusan

Today is Children's Day. I can't say I'm well acquainted with the concept since the UK don't host any such day off, but Wikipedia has taught me that it's not an unknown holiday across the globe. I shan't complain.

Since this year the 5^th of May fell on a Monday, Lauren and I took advantage of the glorious spring weather and long weekend by grabbing a couple of KTX tickets down to Pusan.

KTX stands for Korea Train Express. Reaching speeds of 300kmph (or approx 180mph) we got down to Korea's second biggest city at the opposite end of the country in a measly 2 hours 40 minutes. I guess due to the bank holiday the train was pretty much booked out by the time we got to Seoul Station on Saturday morning, but we managed to get a couple of "standing tickets" that allowed us to sit on those not uncomfortable seats between carriages. It wasn't a bad deal.

Pusan, or Busan depending on who's romanising, is, essentially, a big industrial harbour. Despite having the second largest population in Korea, in the 48 hours we were there we noticed a distinct absence of cosmopolitanism in this fishing port city. Not that it was a bad thing by any means. It was great to see the sea and ride from one end of the subway to the other in less than an hour.

As we stepped off the train we noticed it was "much like Seoul, but hotter". Thus, we headed to the beach. Certainly having lived in this country where white skin is not only maintained but actively sought, sunning myself is not currently high on my agenda. I was surprised, then, to see masses of flesh roasting itself on the sand; less surprised when I observed it was all attached to Korea's western counterparts. On a stroll down Haeundae beach on a sunny Saturday afternoon we were sure we had encountered more Westerners than on your average day in the foreign district of Itaewon.

Now, behold the following excerpt from the Lonely Planet, or The Book as we now mockingly refer to is as:

"Remember the Simpson's episode when Homer ate blowfish and was told he had 24 hours to live? This restaurant serves that fish. A worthwhile restaurant for anyone who wants to experience a seafood delicacy and earn bragging rights: 'I ate poisonous fish and survived'."

Despite scorn for those necessary books that travellers clutch to them like babies, we wanted to earn those bragging rights. So we did. And just for the record, I ate poisonous fish and survived.

Saturday evening we headed to Gwangan beach for a night-time stroll by the beautiful Gwangan bridge, and on spying the big wheel in the distance, we went to Meworld for a romantic view over the city. I asked Lauren if she had something to tell me, but alas, no confession of love this time^^ Randomly Lauren recognised a university acquaintance along the beach -- a long way to come for a chance meeting I suspect.

On Sunday we took the subway/bus up to Beomeosa temple. Settled back into lush scenery, it was a beautiful getaway, and with Buddha's birthday on the horizon, the temple was adorned with colourful paper lanterns making for pretty decorations.

Not yet templed-out, after a quick pajeon (spring onion pancake) lunch we took the cable car from Geumgang Park to the top of Geumjeong mountain. From here we decided to embark on the hike past Nammun village (where there were old men playing foot-volleyball - that's football with a net), down a long rocky slope, and up a demoralising road to find Seokbulsa: a temple with many Buddhist images carved into rocks. It was an effort to reach, and debatable as to its worth, but it was certainly an achievement to have found.

Instead of braving the climb back, we hitched a lift with a couple of guys who "happened" to be going to the same spa as us. Hurshimchung is allegedly the largest jjimjilbang in Asia, but the saunas and baths didn't seem so much bigger than our local spa. Still it was great to soak the aching limbs and bum around in the pyjama-like attire that they provide you with.

That evening, as Lauren was flicking through channels on the TV in our cosy motel room, she came across this: Nudlnude. This is a Korean cartoon-style pornography film - short clips of someone's wacky imagination, not leaving much to ours. If you decide to click on the link fear not; I have been unable to find any video clips.

This morning we embraced the blue skies and took a trip up Pusan tower to behold the size of the city and the beautiful view of the port. And before speeding our ways back to Seoul on the super-duper train, a trip to Pusan wouldn't have been complete without a wander round the fish market. With most of the produce still being alive, the smells weren't as pungent as I'd feared they would be, and the array of sea life available to the consumer was large.

All in all, a lovely weekend away; relaxed and enjoyable - and the weather is so beautiful at the moment that I'm not even dreading work tomorrow^^

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.

Pancake Man R.I.P.

I refer you to my first ever blog entry. We were greeted into this land by the friendly 호떡 man, forming a deep and powerful friendship through the daily 안녕하세요 that we exchanged.

I guess it was a couple of months ago that we noticed that his little green cart was not in frequent use. Lauren asked the neighbouring vegetable lady where he was, where she gained the understanding that his hand was hurt. A tragic loss for such a fine craftsman. We wished him a speedy recovery.

Not able to get a fix of his honey-filled goodness, we began to turn to other street sellers. They just weren't as good. Too greasy. Not enough honey. "It's a shame our man is dead," we'd say in vain.

Yesterday his cart was gone. Shocked and dismayed we asked the lady of his whereabouts. She motioned that he has left. Moved house. She smirked at our disappointment. He didn't even say goodbye.

Mr Green Pancake Man, we wish you well. The best 호떡 in Seoul will be missed, but not as much as your grumbly demeanour.

Tea shops of Insadong

Despite warnings of a rush-hour-subway-like experience, Lauren and I went to the Van Gogh exhibition at the Seoul Museum of Art. However, being a Sunday afternoon, the queue to get in was doubling back on itself leading to the decision that a battle against the crowds with a view to a leisurely wander round the paintings was an unrealistic objective.

Instead we found ourselves in Insadong: a cobbled street pedestrianised at the weekends, full of street vendors selling traditional handicrafts, and side alleys with quaint tea shops. Being another one of those icy cold days, despite alluring sunshine, we withdrew to one of said tea shops for some hot plum tea.

We've heard many a tale about flying birds in such shops, but having visited several in our four months here, and searched high and low for particularly recommended ones, we are yet to find one with actual flying birds. We've seen a few with caged birds, but it's just not the same. Having not found any kind of report of a "Law Against Free Flying Wildlife In Traditional Tea Shops", I am still of the belief that we are missing out. Any direction would be appreciated.

Sinyetchatjip Tea Shop and its caged parrot

The end of a long week

This week has been horrendously tiring; even though we're not always DOING things, the cold weather and long days have been taking it out of us somewhat. We considered a renegotiation of hours again, but the boss is never in, always stressed, and difficult to get hold of. We'll see.

Today wasn't so bad though. For one, it was Friday. That means, for those of you unsure of your days of the week, it's Saturday tomorrow. And THAT means: no school tomorrow. Or the day after that. So maybe with that in mind there wasn't the stress of, "Eugh">, the week STILL isn't over," because it was. W00t.

So.

* Lauren and I both made animal puppets which induced much animal sound making. You know Korean people say mung mung mung for a dog, and nyaong for a cat?

* I spent the afternoon making several versions of "Grandma's House" which I'll get the kids to make on Monday. It's exciting - you open the door and there's Grandma with all her stuff.

* Olive, our Korean co-teacher/babysitter, made a duck mask, and modelled it beautifully. See the picture.

* It was one of the other teacher's birthdays today, so we had real Domino's pizza. Made a change from sloppy Korean style kimchi pizza. And we ate with our hands; not chopsticks and a spoon!

* We witnessed some major dodgy advertising by a couple with clown faces and crazy costumes. The picture just doesn't do it justice.

* Lauren and I headed to Can More to swing in the swing chairs and cosy up with some fruit, yoghurt and cornflakes. Ah, with a side dish of toast and cream. Bit of a couples paradise this one.

A comparatively fun day, but I'm definitely running on overdrive now. Been waking up every day this week without fail having emerged from one bizarre dream or another. Something to do with sleep cycles or whatever; perhaps my alarm is set for that particular hour where I'm in the dreaming stage. I'm not expert, but it might be nice to sleep through them tomorrow and wake up not remembering what my subconscious has managed to dream up for me. Ha ha.

Snacks

떡볶이, or dukboki, is a common snack often found sold in street stalls. Its main ingredient is duk - chewy rice cake - which is cooked in a spicy hot sauce. Other things might be added - here the dukboki was mixed with some Korean fish cake. It's really popular, and pleasant enough, though I'm not sure I'm an avid fan.


This is 순대, or soondae. It consists of a mixture of noodles and unidentified meat, rolled into sausage skins. It looks and sounds hideous, but surprisingly tasty - rather like a good sausage.


Fro-yo has taken off big style in Korea. Advertised as being real, non-fat natural yoghurt, it's delicious AND healthy. Red Mango is a big fro-yo chain that has made its way to the US, but dozens of other frozen yoghurt cafes have sprung up and litter the streets rivalling the supermarkets and noraebangs. OK, that's a *little* over the top. But there's plenty to be found.

Helicopters

Potentially being our last day in our current area, we decided to pay a final visit to the first restaurant in which we dined in Korea. This involved consuming a somewhat sizeable lunch of shabu shabu (샤브샤브) (left: the vegetable accompaniment to boiled meat, followed by noodles, followed by eggy rice-soup), rendering us rather full.

It was thus that our original plan of meeting our US army friend to visit the Seoul Museum of Art became rather unfeasible as we rolled into our agreed meeting place three quarters of an hour late. Well, this along with the fact that our friend accidently drove us in the wrong direction (but presented us with an exciting trip through an underground tunnel - twice) and that once finally at the museum we were told to "U-turn, u-turn, and P1" - implying the carpark was a fair distance away. Attempting to battle the heavy traffic, something was telling us that today was not the day for art appreciation.

Instead, as per a previous daytrip suggestion, we were taken to his workplace where we were shown round the helicopters. It was very exciting. He was a good tour guide, encouraging us to sit inside and play with the controls; he let us climb on top and showed us the ropes of what helicopter fliers get up to; he took photos of us and made us feel like right tourists ^^

Just as exciting, he surprised us with Christmas gifts: Lauren got her requested oatmeal in various flavours while I've been given my fix of Babybel - not quite the English cheddar I'm missing but an exciting Westernism nonetheless! (Oatmeal?! I've been away from England too long...)

Job wise, we're supposed to be meeting Kinderschool woman tomorrow morning to talk about transferring our visas, as well as meeting Comedy Duo about moving apartments. Since the latter are offering us a better contract it's probable we'll take the job with them, but I guess that means one of us has to phone Mrs Evil-Turned-Nice sooner or later and tell her the bad news...

But as far as I'm concerned, after the initial disappointment of moving away from where has become home, I'm quite excited about moving (mould-free apartment here I come?^^) and leaving this state of coasting, unemployed...

The Bunny Seller

All the parents came in to hear the bad news in person today. Many of the kindergarten parents were especially angry for the following reasons:

1. They've put money into the school only for it to close down three months before graduation (yes, kindergarten students "graduate" - with a ceremony and mortar boards and everything);
   
   
2. To find a new school now would mean that the children would go in at the wrong level because they've not completed the year;
   
   
3. They worry that if the teachers are in the knowledge that the school is going to close then they won't do their jobs as effectively (true story - evaluation cards have been scrapped this month along with those extra meetings where we discuss all the kids individually, we've been going to lessons late and ignoring the bells...); and worst of all,
   
   
4. If the school does stay open in December, they don't want to pay! Not pay?! That would totally defeat the object of keeping the school open!
   

Anyway, there have been some negotiations going on today with another school in the area which have put a ray of hope into everyone's teaching lives. They've agreed to take on both the teachers and the kindergarten students on the current curriculum until January when the school year ends, then the students will continue on that school's curriculum in the new year. If it goes through it sounds like a good idea, for then there will be less disruption for both the teachers and the children, but we shall have to see if either a) the deal goes through, or b) they offer us a good contract.

School aside, I went to Nowon this evening (a district just a short distance from where I'm currently living) primarily to get some contact lenses as I've managed to split the only two pairs that I brought with me. Going to Nowon especially for this reason was a bit unnecessary since there are glasses shops all over Seoul (in fact there were three in sight of the one that I went to), but I went with a couple of Korean teachers at school who acted as interpreters which was very helpful, not knowing the words for "prescription" or "soft/hard lenses" or "glasses" myself.

But anyway, it looks like a really cool place with a big Lotte department store with a big cinema in, and lots of bars/clubs/shops around with sparkly lights and neon signs around.

Ate dinner in Lotte; had some kind of steamed pork dish (보쌈) which was delicious, along with all the compulsory sides (Lauren wouldn't think so not liking fat on her meat, see left)


But the real highlight of my trip out was seeing this: a bleach blonde Korean dude selling scrawny straggly looking rabbit-kittens. I picked one up that was running away, but accidentally dropped it. I won't tell the kids that...and I think Lauren will be appalled (not at me, the guy selling, obviously... ^^)

Greetings,

my readers, who are yet few and far between. I introduce to you now what I hope will become a rich and delightful (and imminently less pretentious) collection of my experiences here in the Republic of Korea.

I am currently residing in a small studio apartment of which when I walk in through my front door (admittedly there are only 2 doors - the other of which leads to the bathroom - so to specify front is rather unnecessary) I am greeted by the unpleasant smell of must, appeased only so far by the act of maintaining both the small window and the door open. This is in turn an invitation for the cold air - occasionally icy air, of which I've been informed will only get icier - that flows through the corridor outside to waft into my otherwise heated room, not to mention any curious neighbours in need of an escape from their own cosy abodes, or the occasional door-to-door seller excited by the prospect of saving the energy from knocking. Still, by regularly doing my washing up and airing the airlocked bathroom this is not so much a problem as an inconvenience that I am getting used to. And regarding washing up - I only have one set of cutlery so in order to eat this is a necessary chore anyway.

Now it's not all bad. There is a small supermarket just a thirty second walk down the road outside, and a regular street seller just downstairs with his inviting smells of 호떡 (honey-filled pancake). I say there is a small supermarket, but it holds the majority of one's food needs - especially when one is not one would describe oneself as a foody. It is certainly bigger than your average Tesco Metro. But I realise that I write as though this is my only food source! There are, in fact, dozens of cornershop-esque shops all the way down the small stretch of road that I live on all selling apparently the same produce; one does walk by wondering how they all stay alive/why they all exist when all one's basic needs are covered by the aforementioned grocery store. Nevertheless, they do, and with friendly old people often sleeping inside until they hear your rustle at the door, eager to practice their limited English and help you with your poor grasp of the Korean numbering system.

I doubt this is a sufficient introduction to my new life, but my chosen current occupation does force me to "conk out" - as it were - rather sooner than my regular bedtime. My initial dreams of lessons filled with colouring in and singing songs have been shattered by a replacement image of energetic small children insisting on running/jumping/spinning/sitting anywhere but their designated seat in the classroom. And as far as they look cute on the outside -- they're little devils inside.