Halloween Festival

Well it was a busy October making an unnecessarily large amount of Halloween decorations to hang up in my classroom in preparation for the kindergarten festival. With over-zealous English enthusiasm this year, comes an English Saturday for the kids to show off their abilities to memorise dialogues. That's where I took Simon last Saturday, then, for a genuine Korean school experience.

Unfortunately I was not involved in the face painting/bobbing for apples/pin the tail on the black cat. Instead, I had to read a story about a frog. Yep, a frog. A frog who eats a fly for lunch. We made frog/fly crafts. Then we roleplayed the story. The highlight was in the party blower, and ensured that the classroom wasn't filled with an embarassing silence. Simon got stuck "selling" juice in the sandwich making room. Don't think his day was any more thrilling.

Still, I heard that the face painting/bobbing for apples/pin the tail on the black cat was fun, and apparently the kids actually enjoyed my frog craft. So woo for the day. What's more, is that Simon "volunteering to come in and help" resulted in a nice unexpected pay packet. That funded our day-of-doing-absolutely-nothing-on-Sunday. We possibly overate on the icecream and fried chicken.

I tell you what though, I was disappointed not to have my camera on Monday morning when the pumpkins were moulded through and dripping pumpkin juice on my piano. I'm glad they've been disposed of now, and I can stop my classroom looking quite so black and orange. Today Simon is just hanging out in my apartment today waiting for an appropriate time to go to the airport...

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...

Back to old ways

After the initial excitement of seeing their favourite Mary Teacher back, the kids' good behaviour and/or shyness has certainly worn off quickly. We're back to the old "Yay -- it's playtime!" mentality once let loose of the controls of their native teachers.

This week is seriously dragging...apparently having 5 hours in the afternoon to "prepare" is a lot more tiring than it sounds.

Still, was asked to join the "performance team" at salsa today, so that ought to keep some of my free time occupied! Eugh; tired. Went to bed at 9.30 last night. That's early.

First day back

Today was the first day teaching back at the old yu-chi-won. This week is pretty cushy with only two hours teaching each morning; next week won't be much worse since they cancelled my elementary classes, so it's just 20 hours of teaching kindy a week from now on. This will give me lots of time to go to the bank/post office/stationery shop, surf the net, read, or whatever tickles my fancy once I've done ALL that preparation for my classes. Considering how stressful I found this job to begin with, 6 months down the line it all seems to be working out in my favour :) Also, the weekend just gone is the first that hasn't been laden with storms or extreme heat. However it's still mid-August, so no doubt there is more to come...

In other news, have decided to apply for a masters course starting Autumn 2009 in linguistics. It sorta seems to be up my street. Am just waiting for applications to open so I can get on that.

Musical English

To celebrate the coming of the summer holidays, this afternoon the kids performed the musical that they've been rehearsing in their 'Musical English' class. It was hilarious (stroke cringeworthy in places) watching the kids simulating the theatrical style of their wacky teacher, with emphasis on the hip wiggling and dramatic arm movements. I especially enjoyed the stage snogging by Snow White and her Prince. I will hunt down a picture.

Ooh talking of pictures (not that I took any), an apartment opposite our school caught fire today. Apparently some kids sprayed mosquito spray on the gas stove and it blew up in their faces. Eek.

We also had parent-teacher conferences today. Unfortunately my worst kids' parents didn't turn up. Kind of shows which parents care about their kids' education and which are fobbing them off on the English classes just 'cause they're available. Goodness I'm a cynic.

So I guess I've got caught up in the pre-holiday spirit of things; even though my kids are off on a field trip tomorrow morning and I don't technically have to go work, I think a picnic in the mountains sounds like a mighty fine idea. Sun, kimbap, mountains...and the Korean teachers'll be there to control their kids - woo!

The sounds of summer

With some parts of days reaching 100% humidity but no precipitation to show for it, air con is now my friend. It dries the room out nicely before sleeping, and prevents melting into a puddle of sweat each time my heart takes a beat.

Still, despite the air conditioner having taken a fonder place in my heart than the fan (that will ultimately kill me), the hot weather doesn't do too many wonders for my day to day mood. It's definitely too hot for any strenuous activity such as rigorous nursery rhyme actions, and I certainly don't want to raise my voice above usual conversation levels. Unfortunately we can't always have what we want, though.

In our introductory phonics lessons Lauren and I decided to follow the British Jolly Phonics program. I cannot commend this program enough. Rather than most of the standard phonics books that teach the alphabet first and then focus on the sounds that the letters make, Jolly Phonics focuses on learning the sounds of the letters from the very beginning in the order that they are most heard, before building up to each of the 42 most common sounds in the English language.

It has worked well in getting many of the children to sound out simple three letter words, but now that we're moving onto more complicated vowel sounds (e.g. 'ai' in 'snail', 'ie' in 'die') the split in the levels of the kids is becoming more apparent.

It's optimistic to think that every child goes home at night, enthusiastically sounding out every English word they lie eyes on. However realising that some children aren't even familiar with the letter 'a' while others are reading full sentences without prompting begins to make me feel uneasy.

"Teacher, teacher!" they wail. "What's this?" they ask, pointing to a pig. Wide eyed and infuriated, I turn to the child intelligently asking the final sound in 'train'. "Teacher!" they persist. Manners nor patience are something I've been able to successfully instill. I have hopes yet.

It's not as though we haven't reviewed every letter every lesson since the beginning. Naughty children anger me more than I ought to let them. Enthusiastic children with no memory retention are irritating, but I suppose they get bonus points for trying (but if they'd tried a bit harder at the beginning we might not be in this mess now). But there isn't even a word that describes my contempt for stupid AND naughty children.

Now, it is likely that there is a strong correlation between poor understanding and bad behaviour; if a child can't get my attention by giving correct answers they'll be damned if they don't hear their name once in a 15 minute English session. This doesn't stop me from disliking them the most, though. Go ahead, climb out of the window; at least you won't be disrupting my lesson.

Unfortunately I'm not allowed to pick and choose the kids I want to teach. Nor am I allowed to actually encourage them to climb out of the window. In reality, their dying would probably disrupt my class a whole lot more.

I hope to stream my classes for the next semester. I just have to convince myself that a class full of the worst kids in school that make my blood boil (and it's already reaching boiling point, so it won't take long) will be worth the one with the angelic bright sparks, happily nattering on in English, eager to soak up all the knowledge I can impart...

Sticklers unite!

There are some standard questions one is destined to encounter on striking up conversation with a fellow Westerner or local alike.

"How long have you been in Korea?"
"What are you doing here?"
"What was your major?" ("Well, I didn't minor in anything...")
"Math? And you're an English teacher?"

It doesn't seem logical. Of course when you realise that your job requirements are a degree and a native passport, what it says on your graduation certificate is of little importance as long as you know a few English idioms.

I realise I'm teaching kindergarten. I can barely get them to sit still let alone sit through a lesson on plurals. I do teach a class of predominantly enthusiastic nine year old girls once a day, and in exchange for cute stickers I get my fix of basic grammatical and spelling quizzes in. It doesn't quite cut it, though.

If you're a fellow pedant, perfectionist or downright obsessive, and we've ever had an online chat (or indeed offline, but the spoken word is so much more subjective, especially if we're not from the same country, or indeed county) you may have been subject to a correction or two. In fact, I like nothing more than to be corrected myself, to then do nothing less than shake my head in disbelief and hide in shame as I see I've just pressed "enter" to the opening, "So, its just that..." Admittedly my apostrophe key does stick and has often been victim of severe banging to get the little dash in place, but this is often a case of a bad typist blaming her keyboard.

Anyway, it has occurred to me that this is why I studied maths. I'm a grammar freak; a punctuation fascist; a spelling enthusiast. I like rules, I like to stick to them, and I like things to be right.

Since I've started studying Korean more seriously, my obsessions with language have been cranked up a notch or six. How can I possibly master a foreign language if I've not even mastered my own? It's got so bad that these days I don't even trust my Korean friends to give me accurate spelling advice, and certainly any blog post is always subject to extreme scrutiny and will likely be edited for comma use several times after publishing.

So, after this morning's ponderings on the Oxford comma, I left my apartment specifically to pick myself up a copy of Lynne Truss's "Eats, Shoots & Leaves". I remember it adorning every bookshop window at home on its first publication but was never aware of its contents. How I've been missing out. In the words of an old school friend, this book is orgasmic. It is feeding my incredulity at poorly punctuated signs, and consolidating my notions of when we should or should not use that poor apostrophe. Ms. Truss deems herself a "stickler" and, on racing through this book, it is evident I am one too.

Certainly badly signed shop windows are not something that I miss about England, but my fellow stickler friends I do. There are only so many people in one's social circles that you can share a good punctuation joke with.

Happy Birthday Lauren!

I'm probably always going to harp on about how-fast-the-year-is-going, and today is no exception. It's just a little head spinning to think that it was a whole year ago that we finished our final exams and were planning this little sojourn to the other side of the world. It's only four weeks until our summer holidays - for which I really cannot wait - but then Lauren's off! How different it will be without her.

So, as a reminder of the beauty that is this wonderful country, instead of blogging in the past week I've been making the mother of a mix tape featuring all the wonders of K-Pop that are. With less pleasant reminders of Girls Aloud-esque girl groups, I wasn't exactly a fan of the genre when I first arrived in Korea. However with few alternatives available to me as I walk down the streets of Seoul, I am nothing less than a convert.

Remember Tell Me by the Wonder Girls? Here's their new song. Not exactly the cutesy innocent look they had six months ago. I've chosen to link you here since this version has English subtitles which I feel are a necessary commodity to fully appreciate the delicate nuances of the song. Unfortunately the user disabled embedding, but I urge you to take 3 minutes for a listen.

We had a nice birthday dinner/drinks on Thursday to celebrate Lauren's big 2-2. It was lovely having all our friends in one place, and to meet up with our old co-workers from our old school. It's become a bit of a joke that out of all the ex-teachers, we're the only ones who have continued in the profession - and we don't even necessarily want to be here! Having said that, with no concrete plans post-contract I'm starting to consider staying on...

Parents' Day

Tuesday was the bi-annual Parents' Day. It was originally scheduled for sometime last month, but was postponed due to lack of preparation. At the time I wondered how they could just change the date so flippantly, but as the new day approached I was glad they did. Having originally considered it as an excuse for a lazy day - just four half hour classes all day! - the prospect of having all the mummys scrutinising my classes and keeping count of how many times their darlings raised their hand suddenly became a little daunting, and it dawned on me that running through the day's events a couple of times beforehand might not be a bad idea.

One of my co-teachers suggested that I ran a post office themed class. With this in mind I got the kids to scrawl an "I love you mummy" note, complete with picture of mummy, which they could then 'send' at the 'post office' for Mary Teacher come Postman to deliver.

[On writing 'Mummy' on the board, I was ushered over by the boss who had chosen to sit in on one of my classes with her electronic dictionary out suggesting I'd spelt the word wrong. On explaining that we didn't use an 'o' in England, she then told me to write it both ways in case people got confused. I didn't.]

The day was generally a success. The mothers were embarassed as I asked them concurrently with their little ones how they were ("Oh!" they'd giggle. Making a big circle with my arms to help them understand I'd ask, "Tiger's Mummy, are you happy?" to which I might receive an embarassed nod, or if they were feeling especially brave a, "Yes, happy") and the children seemed to have miraculously learnt my simple post office roleplay dialogue overnight. Really, my fears were unfounded as my initial visions of an easy day came true.

Yesterday Lauren and I spent our morning at Children's Grand Park. Not a national holiday this time, but a whole school inspection by the board of education in Korea. When we arrived at school for our afternoon classes we came to realise that as we were enjoying the animals and gardens, the time off might not have been quite out of the kindness of their hearts but a ploy to hide us from sight. I know we're not technically employed by the kindergarten itself, but perhaps this English teaching is all a little more underhand than we'd realised.

Hanji makes me happy

Last Friday was another national holiday. Unfortunately I spent most of it watching chick flicks and popping pills as an irritating summer cold crept up on me, but nevertheless the time off was much appreciated. Come rain or shine or deathbed sickness, the Korean teachers here always make it to class, making us feel a little guilty about exercising our sick-day rights. A paid, guilt-free day in bed certainly beat slogging it out at the 유치원.

Lauren had arranged a hanji paper lamp-making session with a lady down in the traditional street of Insadong for the Saturday. This sounded like a nice relaxing way to get out of the one-roomed place I'm calling home these days. However, on discovering the lady's absence from her shop, my slowly developing Korean skills were called upon as I dialled the number to find out where she was. "Closed," she said. Most disappointing.

Sunday was Dano - a traditional Korean holiday. For the first time since our very first weekend in Korea, we went to the Namsangol Hanok Village to see what was going on. Reflecting on our memories of those first impressions we received eight months ago, revisiting the site certainly highlighted how quickly the time has passed since our arrival, but yet also how much has passed in this short space of time.

This recreation of a traditional Korean village hosted a variety of activities for its visitors this Dano day. There was a traditional food market, traditional games, 'traditional swing ride', hair washing with 'extract of changpo', a taekwondo demonstration, and Lauren even tried on hanbok. Unfortunately, given our love of a bit of craft DIY, the sign 'Traditional Craft Making' had its back sadly turned from us. Still, the weather was perfect for a wander - sunny but not too hot or muggy - and everyone seemed to be out smiling and having a good time.

Taking a final meander on our way out, what did we come across but a whole street lined with arts and crafts stalls! We were in heaven. Options included soap making, jewellery making, tie dying, Corn dolly making and more, but since our hanji experience in Jeonju the papier maché experience won hands down. While Lauren was creating a masterful paper doll, I was gluing up a traditional mask. Unfortunately the heavens opened big style, making the process doubly as sticky, but the end - if slightly rushed - finish was most exciting. If I'd not spent so much time ripping up pieces of paper to stick on it, I'd assume that it'd been painted.

Hanji is definitely up there on my favourite things to do in Korea. I hope the lamp lady comes back soon.

Teacher's Day

Yesterday was Teacher's Day. At our last hagwon, all presents were banned in order to prevent the excessive competition that the parents would take on to give the best presents. With this in mind, and no such ban at this new school, Lauren and I had hoped for a little more than a few flowers :) Having said that, judging by some of the dodgy pot plants/Lotte merchandise the main teachers received, I'd have rather gone home empty handed than with a bag full of unwanted gifts. Still, always good to feel appreciated; one of my elementary kids wrote me a card saying "You're nice I like you" which was nice.

Today we went out for our first staff meal of the year in aid of the celebration, though I'm not sure who was treating us. The kindergarten owner, maybe. The food was good, but the affair was really boring. In fairness, we make little effort to chat to the other teachers in Korean, but likewise they make little effort to include us in their conversations. Well, why should they, I suppose. We're just a couple of girls who, on the whim of the wild-minded boss, were employed to give token English lessons to keep the school afloat. (I blame the tiredness for the overt cynicism -- apologies.) Anyway, having wondered why we haven't had many (any) staff dos, I realise it's not something I want to encourage...

They killed Wash! (i.e. I ♥ Joss)

Life
Somehow life got busy. I don't know how, or when, but not so long ago the days at school were seriously dragging and I was struggling to get through to the next 'checkpoint', be that the next national holiday or kindy field trip. But somehow, I guess since we stopped feeling guilty about leaving over an hour earlier than the other teachers at school, the days are flying by and with them the weeks, and now, months.

But not only that, it seems my Sundays in front of MegaTV have been somewhat limited lately. It's a shame, since I do love a good Sunday afternoon film, but travelling Korea's most "well-touristed" sights, fuelling my growing salsa dancing obsession several times a week, and working on my slowly improving Korean skills seem to be taking up the majority of my free time. Nonetheless, last Sunday I sneaked in a morning film.

Serenity
Reminiscent of my childhood obsession with vampires, I spent a good portion of my revision days at university watching all 7 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer plus commentaries and generally falling in love with creator Joss Whedon. On chatting to a fellow Whedon fan about Buffy's final villain Caleb, I learned that the actor was the star of another of Whedon's creations: Firefly.

Now I've heard several times over that the show was a flop due to FOX airing the series out of order, and yet a good handful of my geeking acquaintances were selling the series to me. The concept - set in the future after "Earth-that-was" has long been destroyed, a bunch of misfits follow captain Malcolm Reynolds in his Firefly spaceship, taking on whatever jobs they can to rub a few pennies together - honestly sounded a bit, um, crap. Sci-fi isn't my preferred genre of big-screen action, but in true Joss style, the characters are so endearing, and Mal is so dry-humoured and witty, that to this show, too, I became addicted.

So of course watching the follow-up film Serenity was a must-do on my ever-long to-watch list. I am in fact amazed that it took me this long to get around to it.

If I'd not seen the series I'm not sure I'd have been quite as enthralled: even though the plot was well executed I didn't feel all the characters were developed well, and that it was taken for granted that the viewer knew the background of their relationships. (Like, was there any sexual tension between Caleigh and Simon? And where did Inara spring from?!) Nonetheless, Mal's character shone through from the start, and the film resolved all hanging issues nicely. And of course, someone had to die; I can only apologise for the spoiler.

OK, enough rambling about random films I'm watching.

Another national holiday
Yesterday was Buddha's birthday and thus another day off work to take advantage of. Unfortunately due to frolicking in Busan, we missed the Lotus Lantern parade last weekend. Still, last night Lauren and I got to Jogyesa Temple in central Seoul to witness the lighting of the lanterns that have been slowly increasing in number across the country over the past couple of months.

It was a beautiful ceremony, and I was dead impressed at that monk playing that really big drum, but not being of remotely Buddhist origin the mass praying became a bit much for us.

Meeting the locals
Now admittedly people often like to practise their (occasionally limited) English skills on foreign passers-by. You can feel the covert looks on the subway, and can tick down the seconds until they pluck up the courage to engage you and ask the inevitable "Where you from?".

Not quite so covertly, on the ride home last night a bunch of high school boys were rock-scissor-papering it up under my gaze, daring one another to talk to me. Not fitting the usual motives, it actually turned out they couldn't even understand my basic "How old are you?" question despite the fact they've probably been studying English at school for a good several years now. Rather raised some doubt regarding the intense Korean education system. Still, it was amusing watching the boys beating each other up (literally and mentally) and simultaneously handy getting a free Korean lesson in at the same time. As politely as I knew how, I declined the invitation to meet them again...

Pottery making
To back-post even further, on Saturday Lauren and Anne-Sophie, a friend from my Korean class, hit the traffic-logged roads towards Icheon: a small city in the southwest of Seoul famous for its pottery and annual ceramics festival that is currently being hosted. Icheon is also apparently famous for its rice "that tastes so good it needs no side dishes", but it would seem that I'm no rice connoisseur as it neither looked nor tasted much different to the various rice-based creations that are doled out in every food establishment I've visited.

However, rather than a rice tasting day, we booked a pottery tour, of which the highlight was making our own clay creations.

Lauren turned out to be some kind of ceramics master, but without a doubt, despite a self-titled aptitude for arts and crafts, out of our group including the two fellow Brits who'd joined up with us, my attempt was literally the flop as it just failed to sustain any kind of pot-like shape. The nice lady watching over me was even in looks of despair, shaking her head with noises of "어떻게!" under her breath.

Unable to face the failure any longer, I succumbed to my clay and embraced the shape it was insisting on assuming. Still, with a burst in the fiery furnace and a lick of celadon, I'm sure my makeshift dipping dish will serve me well...

For the benefit of Cat,

who I know is a big fan of the cheesy K-pop, I post these videos.

Not quite a Tell Me hit, but heard regularly enough throughout shopping centres to get painfully stuck in one's head, the first is L.O.V.E. by Brown-Eyed Girls. This is an apparent attempt at introducing Electronica into the pop scene, though whether they have succeeded or not is largely debatable.

Second we have a long time favourite by Korea's favourite "hip-hop" group Big Bang: Last Greeting. Again, hence the inverted commas, hip-hop is a term loosely related to anything with vague amounts of rap, so the genre is open to dispute. Nevertheless, this one I've been searching for for a while, so it is with great honour that I share it with you :)

Cat, I hope you enjoy, as well as the rest of you cheesy poppin' fans out there.

The more prevalent purpose of this post is due to the fact that I am alone in the school with nobody but the non-English speaking art teacher (a very nice girl, but conversation is a tad stunted...and mostly in Korean if that gauges the level of communication), while the kids and teachers alike have gone off for a picnic. This field trip was ironically postponed a couple of weeks ago due to bad weather, though I couldn't help noticing that really huge downpour a few minutes ago.

I had to stay behind due to the one 50 minute class I have to teach this afternoon to a bunch of elementary kids. I'm sure they're all off having fun (I'm not bitter, really^^), but I'm kind of enjoying the time off lounging about with lesson plans, coffee and the internet out of the rain...

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 the 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.

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!

Princess Cafe

After another hectic day at work, unsuccessful and frustrating complaints to the boss and no doubt plenty more to come, Lauren and I decided to meet up for a quick recoup before heading home for the evening.

Wanting to venture outside our usual haunts, Lauren noticed Cafe Princess up on the 6th floor of one of the many neon flashing streets. Why not? we thought. Just after a simple cuppa, we were somewhat bewildered by what we encountered.

Private curtained rooms adorned with pink wallpaper, flowers and kitsch cushions and accessories? It seemed a little OTT, even for Korea.

However, we embraced these minor details once we realised the man won price per room (that's like a fiver) offering free refills of tea/juice/coffee/cookies/icecream. With deals like that going, we weren't sure why we weren't already frequenting the place.

Turn of the seasons

Last week it was snowing; this week it is bright and sunny. They said the seasons change fast, but this is practically tropical.

To celebrate this gorgeous weather, I'm inside procrastinating against planning my afternoon classes. School has been a tad stressful lately with the introduction of the new English program in the kindergarten where plans get changed hourly. "Not fixed yet," and, "This is first time" are common phrases heard around the staff room.

On the plus side, my mum is currently visiting in Korea, with the rest of the family to follow next week. It's great to have my own personal interpreter; sometimes I forget she can speak Korean ;) We spent last weekend meeting my grandma and getting our hair permed - "magic" straight perms are all the rage here, but are getting taken over in popularity by "setting" perms that give you long curly locks - and doing a touch of sight seeing.

Among other things we headed to Deoksugung where we enjoyed a peaceful stroll around the palace as well as taking touristy photographs with the palace "guards". Like Gyeongbokgung, Deoksugung hosts a re-enactment of the ancient changing of the guard ritual. This time I took video. I'll post it when I'm back on my own PC.

We went to mourn the late Namdaemun gate which has now been totally blocked save a small viewing window. Sheets for graffiti have been pasted up for people to express their regret. We also visited the gothic Myeongdong Cathdral. Scaffolding and false facades continue to be the bane of my travels.

Orientation

Thankfully the weather has been considerately milling about the 0+ degree mark lately, not that I was able to enjoy it today with another Saturday occupied by school-related activities.

This weekend saw the long awaited "Orientation Day" - the hour when the children come in, meet their new teachers in preparation for the new academic year, and the parents get a briefing of the teaching program.

The last week has been horrendously hectic with stressed Korean teachers running around cleaning and decorating their classrooms with a healthy dose of whining in between. On Wednesday we were informed we the English teachers had to follow suit - something we'd not been told before despite insistence that we had. It was thus that much furniture moving, poster sticking and laminating has taken place in the last two days, only to find that the classrooms were not going to be used. Sigh!

Lauren and I were required to make a formal speech detailing our wonderful English classes with the purpose of encouraging parents to sign their kids up for extra lessons, however since the audience was predominantly Korean-only speakers, we felt we could probably have insulted the parents with a smile on our faces and got away with it. Especially since the 'translation' seemed to last three times as long as what we'd actually said, we kind of thought the boss had made up her own speech anyway and pretended that's what we'd just told them.

For all we know the parents are still at school now. However despite putting in the obligatory, "Do not hesitate to ask any questions," line, we received little need for attendance and ran home. Still, roll on that day off to compensate for our missed weekends...

Graduation

Teachers and parents alike dabbed their eyes with pride as their little ones stepped up to the stage to receive their nostalgia album, sang the graduation song they'd been paining us with several times a day for the last month, and bowed to the crowd letting their mini mortar boards slip down in front of their faces. An opportunity for photographs and flower giving as the final year kindergarten students gained their position as alumni, joining that exclusive club many of their parents and siblings are long held members.

In other news, wandering the streets of Itaewon we came across this guy: an old Korean man selling hand made wall hangings. Impressed by his quick hand, eye for neon paint combinations and oriental facial hair, we indulged his trade and bought our names in flouncy decoration.

Seoul Land

In celebration of the approaching end-of-school year, my seven year old kindy classes were taken - with their new favourite Mary Teacher - to Seoul Land.

This is another of Korea's amusement parks, though being accompanied by the under-100metered, the more thrilling rides were only to be enjoyed by mock awe and gasps. Instead we all struggled up the fake snow slopes hauling little red sleds behind us, anticipating the crowds of half sized people eagerly pushing their way for an opportunity to slide the twenty seconds to the bottom. Of course when I say we, I mean the children. I merely followed behind and waited for a chummy child to invite me on the back of their sled.

This excitement was followed by - in between toilet breaks - a "magic show". As witnessed at Lotte World, this was largely conducted by Western looking (and by that I mean an amalgamation of blonde haired and blue eyed) performers dancing in a changing series of coloured lights and stage effects. The magic itself was pretty lame, for even my inspired eyes could sense that secret compartment holding that multi-coloured scarf. Nonetheless, a bonus of not being of the intended age group audience, as a teacher I was given a free magic trick to wow the students and whoever else is willing to humour me. (Note the present tense there; free webcam demonstrations are available to those on my contacts list ;) )

Amusement parks such as this one do seem to be prime spots for attracting not only hoards of school children, but also courting young couples. You can tell these, if you are unsure of their relationship status, by their matching outfits. These venues tend to encourage matching ears as a fashion accessory, however many other items can be viewed in double across the capital. Such items might include matching phone charms (your mobile is naked without one), hats, jackets, bags, or - wait for it - underwear. With Valentine's Day approaching I considered indulging this culture, albeit as a joke, however for some reason couldn't bring myself to part with my hard earned cash over anything sufficiently unsexy that I'd allow either one of us to attire. E-card it will have to be, then :P

(Right: a couple sporting matching cat ears; one of many underwear shops getting ready for "Valentain Day")


Returning from this digression, I rode a couple of children's rides with half-real enthusiasm while one of my new (7-year-old) admirers asked permission to take a video with my camera from the top of the spinning aeroplane ride. Facebook holds the evidence.

It was a long day of jumping up and down, being pulled in multiple directions as several small people bided for my attention, and holding a fixed smile on my face. I was lucky to get the front seat of the bus home thereby relieving me from entertaining duties, however my attention was stolen, somewhat in alarm, by the number of spray-painted car outlines adorning the highway. These are apparently corners of cars marked out to indicate the location of recent crashes. Literally seeing outlines of car after car pointing in all directions, my mind was not eased as the bus driver weaved in and out of traffic at high speed coming inches within other cars and the lives of a whole bus load of children...