blog

This is my blog. It was started when I first arrived in Korea, and is really, until 16th May, just a collection of the bulk emails I sent out to friends and family. As new entries are added to the top, anybody really wanting to read all of it might want to click here to go to the bottom, and read it in order.

Most of the images embedded in the text are clickable, and will lead to larger versions.

24 December 2007

Last week I went for a couple of job interviews, both at high schools not that far from my present location. I had sent out a lot of emails to recruiting agents and one in particular responded well.

I met the agent outside the first school on Thursday morning and we went into the English teacher's staffrooom and sat down with the head English teacher. After talking to her for about 15 minutes, I thought it was going well and this was going to be an easy interview. But we then went off to the principals office. In there was the principle, the vice principal, the head English teacher and two more people. After being there for a while we went back to the teacher's room, I thought this was the end, but I was interviewed by 6 English teachers.

The next morning I went to another school, again meeting the recruiter outside. We went to a teacher's room, but were whisked off to an audio visual room where 7 English teachers interviewed me.

In both interviews I was able to make all there laugh with my best line in Korean. "I study Korean hard, but am 44 years old." Always good to get them to laugh.

I will start with the first school on March 1. I need to get a police clearance from Australia, and am hoping not to have to go back there to do so. The school teaching will be very different from my current situation. I will work 9 to 5 instead of 2 to 10. Class size will be 40 - 45 instead of a maximum of 6, and I will have only 22 hours in class per week, instead of about 30. The students will be from 4 to 10 years older than my current students.

If this plan works out I will spend 4 weeks in Vietnam, for some rest, reading and swimming.

I hope you all have a good Xmas, eat too much and laugh a lot :)

7 December 2007

It snowed here again last night, but this was the first time there was any left laying around. I took the attached photo as it is one I have been wanting to take for a while....

Work is proceeding as usual, though there is a little more satisfaction this semester. I have instigated a program of sentence writing to overcome what seems the biggest problem for our students, the use of all those little words in sentences. I am referring to a, an, to, the, this, those, these etc. Using the correct tense is also a problem that I am hoping to correct.

My strategy, slowly developed last semester polished this semester is like this. Each student gets a list of 40 verbs, each verb has three tense forms. So jump will have jump, jumping and jumped. The student then has to write three sentences for each verb, simple past, present continuous and simple future. So they might write

I jumped in the park.
I am jumping in the park.
I will jump in the park.

If they get the sentence right, they move onto the next one, if it is wrong, I correct it and they have to write it out three times. This allows the students to work at their own pace.
After they go through the list they have to do it again, but this time the sentences have to be 6 words or longer, and they cannot use the pronoun "I".

Then they have to do it again, but writing questions.

After this I call out each word and they have to say a sentence. Wrong sentences are again written three times. However a word is not checked off until they have used it correctly.

Some students have finished this. The next step is simple present, I jump in the park, or He jumps in the park. Then future continuous, I will be jumping in the park. First writing, then saying. There are too many for memorisation of more than the rules for using these words. The director came and watched a grade one class speaking this stuff yesterday, and was surprised at their progress. Some kids who were almost unable to speak at the beginning of the semester are rattling off good sentences very quickly.

The job hunt progresses. I am still negotiating with the current school, but a change would be good as well. I have applied for a position in a high school south of the city. The situation is complicated by a new package of visa rules for teachers. The impact of these new rules is not yet understood by those in the industry.

I am going to an outside wedding tomorrow, maximum temp for the day will be 2C. It might be a tad cold, so I have a new overcoat, scarf and hat to go with my suit. :)

Keep well.

17 November 2007

It is getting cold here. Tomorrow's forecast is 2C to -5C. The streets of my local area are lined with Ginko, and they are currently bright yellow. I was just on the roof watching leaves showering down. A beautiful time of the year.

We are currently in a loooong stretch of work with no holidays. I think it has been a month or more since the last non-weekend day off and the next is the one day for Xmas. I will have 9 days off at the end of December. My contract finishes on January 27, and I am starting the job hunt early. There are many places that want a teacher yesterday, but I am trying to get in early to avoid those. I am also going to chase a job at one of the big universities. Though they don't pay as much as I could get in an academy, there are lots of holidays, and as the work hours are short, lots of opportunity for extra work.

My current director is wanting me to stay on until the beginning of March, but has yet to talk numbers. We are also talking about me coming back to teach at the same school again. We have both edged the numbers we are talking a little closer, but there is still some distance between them. I went for an interview last week in an inner city academy that teaches adults. However they are not offering acommodation, and the extra wages they are offering are not enough to rent an apartment. This means they are effectively offering me less that my current position. It was good to get a face to face interview under my belt, I have not had one since the beginning of 2005.

I went out with friends last night. We went to Hongdae to a club called Tinpan. Though I have heard about this club before it was the first time I had been there. I am not kidding when I say there were nearly 4 people per square meter. Very tight, but lots of fun.

Sang Hee is currently near the end of her present work cycle. She works two days, then two nights then two days off. This means that her two days off get a day earlier each time. This time it is Sunday and Monday, but next week is a good one with Saturday and Sunday. She and I and a group of friends went to Itaewon a few weekends ago. Itaewon is a very multicultural part of Seoul, and there are few of those. Sang Hee had a great night and wants to go back. One of my co-workers, Unha, wants to meet her, so she can tease me, paying me back for when I met her boyfriend for the first time last weekend. Unha is craving Shepherds Pie, and I have found a place that serves it, so we might all go there to start the night off.

I have attached a device that I think says much about the life of the Korean kids I talk to. This thing goes over your ear. It has a tilt detecting mechanism inside that turns on an ear piercing scream when the wearers head tilts forward, waking the student from much needed sleep so they can continue studying. Sorry about the picture quality, it was taken with my phone. Click for a higher definition image.

Hope you are all well, and happy.

28 October 2007

Life here has been busy, but I thought I might put together a little story about parking in Seoul. Greater Seoul has a population of 22 million, the third largest city in the world, covering 2300 km2. By contrast, Sydney has 4 million people on 12,000 km2. As there are a lot of cars in a small area, parking is always a problem.

Here are two of the solutions used. This photo shows a carparking lot outside a fairly large apartment complex. As you can see a row of cars is parked across the other parked cars. (All images here can be clicked for larger ones)

The solution? All the cars parked across the other cars are in neutral, and can be pushed out of the way.

Here is a more complex situation. This parking lot is outside my school.

You can see the old green parking ramps. They have a hydraulic system that allows the car parked on top to be raised and another car parked underneath. However this is no longer used, and it is pretty easy to guess why, one car dropping on another.
The solution? All of the parked cars have the owners mobile phone number (here they are called hand phones) displayed inside the window. This is so common that there is an industry to supply different versions. I have photos of some below.
They range from the simple handwritten note....

through specifically made badges....

to cross-stiched cusions...(the Korean writing says "sorry")

and LED lit signs.

This one cycles through a rainbow of colours.

It all seems a well organised system.

23 October 2007

Hey there all,

I have been very busy of late. Last week I was one of the four judges of an English speech contest for a biggish council district, Guro-gu. On the Monday we watched and marked 24 elementary school speeches, 9 middle school speeches, 8 elementary school plays and 8 middle school plays. It was fairly tiring and after that I walked into work, though I did miss a fair bit of the first half of the day. The finals were held on Thursday, and this time there were big crowds, photographers and news crews. The numbers were also much small with only 3 from each category. I was then whisked back to work for a one on one lesson teaching English to the money many behind the academy I work for. This time I only missed the first two classes.

Last weekend I went out of Seoul with my new girlfriend Sang-Hee. We woke early, caught subways to a train station, a train, a taxi and finally a bus to arrive in a beautiful temple in the country. It is called Kuinsa, and is Buddhist. They are doing a lot of construction at the moment, but it is a beautiful place, set in a deep steep little valley. We walked around for a while, climbed to the rim of the valley, and then went back and saw a ceremony inside one of the many buildings.

We then caught a bus to a mountain called Chiaksan. Literal interpretation means Hard Mountain, as it is a difficult cliimb, but it's name is very close to Toothpaste Mountain, which it is often called. We stayed the night in a hotel with a stream bubbling away outside the window. In the morning we walked up to the mountain. The Korean climbing scene has to be seen to be believed. There were many people, all kitted out in walking boots, high tech breathable fibre clothes, and most had walking sticks. I have often seen people kitted out like this on the subways, looking tired and wondered how serious their pursuits were. Well this was a tough mountain.

Few young people do this activity. Most were older than me, and some of them must have been in their 70's. Walking up the ridge to the top, the traffic was dense. Most of the time bottlenecks were formed as those coming down and those going up took turns. Amazing stuff.

We were a few weeks early for the full Autumn colours, though there were some patches of red and lots of yellow. I will try to get out and about in a couple of weeks time.

I will put some photos of this trip up by the end of the weekend.

Hope you are all well, and keep the emails coming.

1 October 2007

Hey all, it has been a couple of weeks since I last sent an email.

I have been working very hard on my Korean, and am now able to quickly construct sentences. Some months ago, I had a fair bit of vocabulary, but not enough grammar to use it. I have spent months acquiring grammar, and now have not enough vocabulary for my grammar. I am still pushing on with grammar acquisition, but am also putting lots of effort into adding to my vocab.

I am still having 2 Korean lessons every week, now only 40 minutes each. I am also spending many hours with my Korean language exchange partner. She works at the KTX terminal in Yongsan, running a team of ticket sellers. She spends time on the help desk and was always very nervous when a foreigner came to ask a question. Now she wants them to come to her, and if one is talking to somebody next to her she listens in. Her English vocabulary is much better than my Korean, but the gaps between our grammar levels is much smaller. As she has crazy working hours, I get to work harder than she does, and hope to close the gap over the next four months.

Speaking of time, I have now been here for more than 8 months, so am 3/4 of the way through my contract. I will almost certainly come back here after a 3 months sojourn in southeast Asia. I will not be able to return to my present job, as they will need to replace me for a 3 month period, and there will be no new contracts available until August. I will start looking around in November for a late April, early March start. It seems that it is best to get a job when in the country, and this means I can get a visa in Bangkok before returning, and get the next place to pay for my airfare, Bangkok to Seoul.

The party times have waned a little, which I dont mind at all. I did see some great live jazz in Hongdae a little over a week ago, and will continue to try to track more down. I have also started going for trips around Seoul trying to find good coffee. I have now found a few places that sell excellent coffee, and have good atmosphere. Unfortunately there are none near me. There is a reasonable coffee shop about 1/3 an hour walk away. I like that place. I often walk there, listening to and repeating the Korean mp3 files that come with my text book, sit there translating the pages of the next chapter, or constructing written sentences for my homework, then do more listening and repeating on the way home.

Teaching is going very well. The new students in my class now know what to expect from me, and even the lazy ones are doing all their homework. The parental complaints have almost died off as the director has convinced the parents that my teaching style is good for their kids. I have been told repeatedly that I should be getting a constant trickle of complaints about how much homework I am giving. If I dont then I am not handing out enough. Poor kids, but it does seem to work. Most of the kids seem very well adjusted, and some have such good English that they would be standout students in Australian schools, even though they were working in their second language!!

Very sad about Port losing :(

Keep the emails coming, I love reading them.

15 Setember 2007

We are now three weeks into the second and last semester of my contract here. While I am teaching some of the students I have taught before, many are new to my style, which is a mixture between playful, fascist and chaos. Some of my students have had a fairly torrid time of it, especially those who I know are slack with their homework. I have had three students bought to school by their mothers, in tears. They had not done their homework and were so afraid of coming into my class without it done they needed to be dragged along. Their parents appreciate this, and my secondary job is to keep the parents, and not their children happy. However, my primary job is to teach English. While they are doing the hard yards, they will help me do my primary job.

I am told by the director that I should have some parents complaining about the amount of homework I give. To put this into perspective I supply the following data, collected from 12 of my 32 students. They do about 32 hours per week of elementary school, 20 hours in various academies, from English, Korean, Science, Computing, and Chinese to Art, Piano and Soccer. This generates about 10 to 15 hours per week of homework. So they are looking at 60 to 70 hour weeks. There is always more homework than they have time for, so I am expected to have pointer elbows than all the other teachers they encounter. At the beginning of each semester the mothers look for the English hagwons timetable first and fit the other academies classes around this timetable. By the time they go to middle school this changes and they go to one stop shop academies

I have had enough complaints about the levels of homework that I am being asked to temper it a bit. All the difficult students now do all the homework I set them, and clamor to present it to me. Now I can be nice teacher, instead of angry teacher.

My Korean is coming along. I have been spending 2 - 3 hours most days for a while now, and as well as lessons have a language exchange partner who listens to my bad sentences. I now have tilted that seesaw a little the other way and am needing more vocab to balance out the grammar I have.

I am still undecided about next year. I still plan 2 - 3 months in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand after this contract finishes on January 27, but over the last two weeks my Korean has improved to the point that I might want to come back for another year to get conversational. I will start hunting for jobs in November, looking for a late April start.

Hope this finds you all well

27 August 2007

It has been a while since I sent an email, but here it is. It has been a busy three weeks, with summer intensive, a pile of birthdays and a visit from Kevin, my father, and Julia.

My normal work hours are 2pm to 10 pm, but during the summer and winter intensive sessions this becomes 9am to 5pm, and class sizes rise from a max of 6 with an average of 4, to 10, Most morning classes being that big, but the afternoon classes are still small, with only 2 or 3 students. My school has also opened a new wing of four classrooms for kindergarten kids, and hired more teachers.

During the summer intensive the new teachers arrived, as well as three university students, two of whom were there for the last winter session. This made for a crowded teachers room, 11 instead of the 5 I have been used to. During the week before last we went to Everland, a big theme park complex south of Seoul. Some students elected to go to the theme park, Everland, and were there unsupervised, but they were our older students. The other, much larger group, sensibly elected to go to the water park. It is huge, a number of times the size of Waterworld on the Gold Coast and it was packed, as busy as Rundle Mall during christmas shopping. After much chaos as we took the kids into the 5 story locker complex, we met up and moved to a shaded area. We waited there for about 1/2 an hour while stuff was sorted, Just as we were about ready to start out, one kid fell from a rope divider and landed on his head. I saw him swinging on it and was about to go and tell him to stop when it went out from under him and down he went. He had his scalp stapled and had to stay out of the water for the rest of the day.

At about 11 am I was given 7 food vouchers for eating places, 6 boys and told to come back to this spot at 4pm. We went to the wave pool first. You could have walked across it on the heads of people!!! About every 10 minutes a siren would sound and a scream would erupt from the 1000 or so people in the pool. Then a wave would roll down the pool, one every minute or so. Lots of fun.

We went on a couple of other things as well, but didnt go on the slides as there was a 1 hour wait.

Last week we had a revision day on Wednesday, tests on Thursday, and went to see the Simpsons movie on Friday. There is Korean writing shown in the movie when Homer opens a curtain. It says, "Come to our academy and learn the Texan accent". I had to ask one of the Korean teachers about it as soon as the movie finished.

Kevin and Julia arrived last Friday. I went to Insadong with them on Saturday, they came for a walking tour of Mokdong on Tuesday, we went to some traditional Korean dance and music at Korea house on Thursday night and to see a musical at the spectacular Korean opera house on Friday night. It was great to see them, and they loved the place, enough to be planning to come back in January.

After three fairly big weekends, I am planning a bit of a break from the party scene. Not sure what I am going to do with my weekends yet, but plan at least one at a beach. I will be looking at the WAM surf model and see if I can get down south for a surf before the weather gets colder. At the moment most days are ranging between minimums of 25 and maximums of 30, with high humidity. I like this sort of weather, but the Canadians, who make up the bulk of the foreign teacher contingent generally melt.

Hope you are all having as much fun as I am,

3 August 2007

I went home early last Friday night knowing that I had a wedding to attend on Saturday. Sean was getting married to Young Myeong, his girlfriend of two years. She is a lot of fun, and they will be happy together. The wedding was a good mix of western and Korean. I went there without a camera, knowing that there would be more than enough, but was tasked with filming it with Sean's father's camera. I had sore arms by the end....

We all went to a bar afterwards to celebrate, and some of us continued on.

However I had a flight the next day, so was home fairly early.

Some weeks ago a few of us realised that we all planned to spend the holidays in Jeju island, south of Korea. Barry's girlfriend, Noh Gyeong, booked me tickets and the three of us flew there together. Sean, Young Meung, and Sean's parents were meant to be arriving at about the same time, but were delayed in Busan and missed their flight.

At the Jeju airport I went by myself to Seogwipo where I had a dive trip organised for the Wednesday. I booked into a small, very cheap hotel near the dive shop and had a walk around. On Monday I did a lot of walking. I saw a couple of nice waterfalls, one of which essentially falls into the ocean. I looked around the harbour, and had a coffee and studied Korean at the first presidents former summer retreat.

Tuesday, the others had made it to Jeju and were staying 15 km from me at the Hyatt, a very swank hotel/resort. We went to one of the waterfalls again, then ate food. We then went on a harbour cruise and saw lots of islands. We went to a beach near the Hyatt, and had it to ourselves. After a long day we all sat for a great meal.

Wednesday I went diving. There were 6 in our group, along with a wife and three small kids. We were taken in a fishing boat to a small island separated from a much larger island by a channel that had a ripping current running through it. There were many others on the rock platform. As we were getting briefed for our dive, I noticed a kid, about 12, in scuba gear, rushing down the channel in obvious trouble. I rushed over there and dragged him to shore. He had no fins on, not enough air in his BCD, and didnt know to just stuff the free flowing reg into his mouth. All he could say when dragged out, was "thank you", again and again. My instructor went and tore strips off his instructor.

The first dive was fairly good, and after the two newer divers were taken away by the instructor, my buddy and I were told to wander around for a while as we had lots of air left. The second dive was just my buddy and I and the instructor. He took us to the deeper side of the island. For some 10 minutes I was swept along a vertical wall of basalt columns, at 30 m. I could see 10 m up and 10 m down, and it was spectacular. The walls were covered with yellow and purple soft corals, with many other invertebrates in there.

Wednesday I moved digs into the Hyatt. I thought I deserved a couple of days in the lap of luxury, and boy was it ever. I see where the fifth star comes from now. Wensday evening I could see that a swell was picking up in the bay, and when I woke up on Thursday, there it was :). It took some organising to hire a board, but I finally did. I only managed to catch two waves, but they were worth it.

I came home on Friday, needing a holiday to recover from my holiday. :)

You can see pics here, in the Jeju album....

18 July 2007

Last Friday was my birthday. I went straight from work to a bar where I met a bunch of friends and we went out for the night. Saturday night was a bucks (stag) night for one of my friends here. I bought the suit I talked about earlier for his wedding in two weeks time. We went out to a chamchi house where we sat on the floor in a nice room and ate out way through big piles of raw tuna and drank a little soju. After that we went off to some places in Itaewon. Sean, the stag, was sent home in a taxi in the wee hours in a very second hand state. A good night was had by one and all.

Monday saw the arrival of yet another teacher, Jean-Yves, another Canadian. He has not been here for three years, but has spent three years here before that. So we now have three new teachers, Joe, a veteran of the ESL game, with 10 years experience, Kelly, with 2 weeks, and now Jean-Yves. There is one more new teacher to come, but that is a few weeks off I think.

Yesterday, Tuesday, was a holiday. Brad, Kelly and I caught the subway to Noksapyeong, and walked from there to Seoul Tower, a needle like structure on top of a "mountain". Although the day was a little misty, the view was well worth the trip. I would like to see it at night. I have added some pics to an album in my photo gallery.

If you click on a thumbnail you will get a bigger view. If you click on the bigger view a popup will open giving an even bigger view. I particularly loved the urinal, one of the better views :)

9 July 2007

Last week was a good one, teaching is smooth, and the new teacher seems good. We will be getting three new teachers, one per week, with two more to go.

This weekend we decamped to Busan. After a quiet Friday night, I woke early Saturday, walked out of my apartment and around the corner to Brad and Jens. The three of us left to pick up The Brent outside, The Pied Piper feeling increased as we walked past Sue's house and picked her up, and then met Shelly at the main road. The bunch of us caught the subway to Seoul station where we met Jesse and Ivan. Then th KTX. Very comfortable and getting to over 300kph.

At Busan we met Jenny The Bear, and then caught subways across Busan to the beach were we took hotel rooms. I spent a fair bit of time body surfing nice waves in cool water. I have missed body surfing and may consider taking a contract in Busan if I decide to come back for another.

After a fairly quiet night, again, we went to the aquarium. This is a pretty good aquarium with good displays, including some young Leafy Seadragons.

Mike trained us for the aquarium walk (it cant really be called a dive as we had no fins) and in we went. The sharks were fairly big but didn't come very close. The main worry were the turtles. We went in two groups, I was in the first one. As we were leaving the tank, one of the turtles came up and nipped me on the leg. It wasn't enough to get through the wetsuit, but left me with a small bruise, which is today a small red mark. I would have been disappointed if there was no mark :).

We caught a taxi to the station, the KTX back to Seoul and subways back home. A great weekend where I met some really great people.

You can see pics here and video here.

28 June 2007

I have been fairly busy.

My Korean lessons are coming along nicely. My teacher bought me a grammar book so I have now embarked upon the formal study of Korean grammar. This is much harder than just memorizing phrases and words, but will move me closer to conversation. So far I have worked my way through the first lesson, and understood most of it. This has taken me two weeks. There is a big practice section at the end of each lesson, and I will be giving this a go in a few hours. I have found a person willing to do language exchange, I will teach them English and they will teach me Korean. We plan the first meeting on Wednesday next week. However they are a fair distance from me, and I will be meeting them in their lunch time. I will attempt to find someone closer.

Last weekend was a good one, meeting friends and sitting in a park on Friday night. On Saturday night I met with a big group of friends in the university district for dinner. We had to wait for one who was stuck on a bus in traffic for half an hour. We had met at one of the meeting places there, so there were many people waiting for other friends, hundreds I think. There was a constant flow of others walking past as well. We went to a bbq restaurant for dinner, then a hof for beer, then a club to dance the night away.

This weekend will be a quiet one, though I will go to a quiz night at a bar nearby on Saturday night.

Next weekend we are all decamping and traveling down to Busan to go diving with sharks in the aquarium. While I am looking forward to this, I am more looking forward to swimming at the local beach. It has been a while now.

The weekend of 14/15 July is free, but that is just after my birthday, so something will happen then. The following weekend I will have dinner with the adult class I teach, along with the other class, Brad and the director of my academy, Zac.

The following weekend starts with a work dinner on the Friday night for the academy to mark the end of semester, the departure of Brad and Jen, and the arrival of their replacements. Saturday I will go to Sean and Young Meong's wedding, and on the Sunday will fly to Jeju Island, of the southwest coast with Barry and Noh Gyeong for a week in the sun on the beach. I am looking forward to that break, I have earned it.

When I get back I will be taking over Brads morning classes, meaning that I will be teaching from 8 - 9 am Monday through Thursday, as well as my usual 2 to 10pm Monday through Friday classes.

My health is good, and I am having a great time,

18 June 2007

This week was the last in the four weeks I choose to do on pronunciation, and for that I am glad. I made up three very bad tongue twisters, one based on "th", another on "f" and "v" and the last on "r" and "l". These are sounds that are not used in Korean, and so were hard for my students. By the end of the four weeks they were sick of them. When they expressed this opinion I pointed out that I wasnt surprised, as they had done this for part of the last 20 lessons. I further pointed out that I had done it for part of the last 160 lessons.

So on Friday I did the video of them all doing it, though there are two classes to go, on Tuesday. Now I have to mark them. :(

I also did these with my adult students. It seems to have worked fairly well, and with minimal follow up, should have a lasting impact, I hope.

Sunday was my co-teacher, Brad's birthday, so on Friday night we met a bunch of friends at a local bar. Saturday I did little, mostly sleeping in. Saturday night I took Brad and his wife Jen out to dinner at a duck restaurant. We sat on the ground around a small table. They put hot coals in a container, and then added duck meat on skewers, which rotated above the coals. There was more steamed duck that went into little frying things on the side. There was also a pile of side dishes, pickled onion, greens, kimchi, radish, garlic etc. Some of these were added to the little frying plates. After the duck on the skewers was either eaten or added to the little frying pans, a stone dish with 1/2 a duck and soup mixture was put on the coals. Uncooked rice was added to this and it simmered away while we ate away. By the time we arrived at the bottom of the dish the rice was like a nice risotto. Very nice meal.

Saturday I went with some friends to a market in town to buy myself some shorts, a belt and shoes for my suit. I managed to get some nice shorts, a pair of board shorts, and a belt, but shoes that I liked were harder to come across. Later we went across town to Technomart to look at mp3 players for the girls.

As I was walking back to my apartment from the subway I got a call from Brad telling me that he and some others were going to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner, so I had about 10 minutes at home to shower and change and get outside and into a cab. The Outback Steakhouse is a chain of Australian themed restaurants that I have so far avoided. But the food was good, and the steak fantastic. However if you see the attached image you will notice that there are some interesting meal names :) Sorry about the image quality, I had to take it with my phone. Clicking on the image will bring up a bigger version.

1000 Won is about the same as USD$1 or about AUD$1.20.

I have spent some time working out how webpages are made nowadays, and trying to understand how the photo gallery software I am using works so I can make it look how I want. This mostly involves me changing lines in the theme files and seeing what it breaks, and doing this often enough so I can learn something.

My Korean lessons are coming along, but I am not learning any new material for the next week or so, as I want to get on top of all that I have so far.

11 June 2007

I have had a good weekend. Went out with the usual crowd, but it has grown a bit with the addition of Alistair, a long term resident who has just taken a new contract, two Korean teachers who work with him, and Patrick, a 2m tall Irishman. Brad and I met with them all at about 11pm, an hour after we finished work on a Friday night. It was a good night.

As money is a little tight this month, after buying my suit, I had a quiet Saturday and Saturday night, and went to various markets around town on Sunday. The pick of the bunch was Noryangin Fishmarket, like going to an aquarium. I took a bunch of photos and put them on my webpage.

As I have only been out of Seoul twice in the last 5 months I am planning a few trips soon. The weather here is getting warm, this week the forecast is prediction 32 and 33 C, Monday through Wednesday, with rain on Thursday and Friday. If the weather is good I am going to try to get to the ocean on the east coast and see if I can go for a swim, though I am not sure what the temperature is.

A friend of Brad runs dive tours in the Busan Aquarium, which is on the southeast corner of Korea. We are slated for a dive in the tank on the second weekend in July. It is also time I started working out what I am am going to do on my weeks holiday for summer. I have been thinking about going to Jejudo, and island off the southwest coast for some diving. However, Yap, Guam and Palau are also calling me for some diving. I think I should take a domestic holiday, I may never be back here.

My Korean lessons are going well, but I have already forgotten much of what I learnt, so I have decided to learn no new material for a little, and make sure I know the six conversations from my lessons, and a whole bunch of question words as well.

To give an indication of how my Korean is progressing ordered food for the teachers dinner last week. It was fairly stressful as there were the two other foreign teachers, two Korean teachers, and the bosses wife all watching as I did it. It worked out alright and the food arrived on time. However I ordered the food again the next day, and forgot to tell them the delivery time. We order between lessons three and four,and eat after lesson four. The food had been sitting there for about 20 minutes when we started eating :(.

Last night I watched a fantastic Korean movie, I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK. The director, Park Chan-wook, is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. He made a trilogy on revenge that were very violent, but they did have to be. His cinemaphotography is fantastic. This one has, however, little violence, and is very quirky and often funny. Well worth a look. I cannot watch Korean movies at the cinema because there are, of course, no English subtitles.

8 June 2007

It has been a busy week.

I managed to trick a Kiwi. Some time ago I met Ivan, he works in an English school with a friend of mine. He is very tall, and lean. He had been in Korea for four weeks, and had lost his passport and had an ex-coworker with his two dogs move into his apartment. The ex-coworker achieved his ex status on his second day, he was fired for drinking on the job. Barry, the friend I was talking about said that Ivan needed some skepticism, and that we could help. Barry opined that Ivan had not been ribbed enough in his life.

Ivan had been befriended by a Korean couple, who had given him some books. I asked Ivan if he knew about the status of the book debt in Korea. Barry jumped in on this and we had a good time, at poor Ivan's expense. I did feel some guilt about this. Ivan is now doing well, having replaced his passport, removed the ex-teacher from his apartment, and got his head around living here.

Well last Friday I was sitting next to him, and the following conversation occurred....

Me: Do you read the online news much Ivan?
Ivan: Yes, a fair bit.
Me: Did you see the story about the Oxford English Dictionary removing 800 words from the English language?
Ivan: No, but they cant do that!!! What sort of words did they take out? This is Orwellian, Newspeak stuff!!!
Me: Well I didn't know most of them, but gullible was in there.
Ivan: But they cant do that!!! Can they?

At this point I was about to lose it, so I called on the erstwhile Barry, who was sitting on the other side of Ivan. He, however, had not been not paying attention to the previous comments.

Me: Barry, did you hear the story about the Oxford English Dictionary?
Barry: What?
Ivan: The Oxford English Dictionary has just taken gullible out of the dictionary!!! They cant do that. Just because the word doesnt exist doesnt mean the concept doesnt exist.

At this point I lost it. I had tears running down my face, and was told I was glowing bright red.

I felt guilty again, but suspect that next time I will once again fall for Ivan's need for skepticism.

I have spent a fair bit of time getting my website up and looking the way I want it. I have added a photo gallery program, and am tweaking the graphics so it matches the rest of the pages. This is taking some time as it is coded in php, which I have never learnt.

Tonight I added some blog software and am testing it out. If it works out as planned I will be able to email the blog and have the emails published. Another feature I have been testing tonight is to set up email notification. This way I can just publish something on the blog, and have an email sent to you to notify you of an update, with a link. It looks like it will work smoothly. Also the email from the blog will look like it comes from this account, so if you reply it will come back to this account.

One reason I am doing this is to avoid having to log into a blog, or this email, when using dodgy internet cafes during my holiday. Installing keystroke loggers that capture usernames and passwords is just too easy. This is why I use disposable email accounts on my holidays.

The adult classes I am teaching in the mornings are fun. They all have to come into work an hour early for the lessons, and while the company pays for me, and some overhead for my director, they are not paid. I try to keep it light and fun. They are starting to get that I joke a lot. Last Tuesday I set them the first piece of homework. The book we are largely ignoring had an exercise asking them to send the manager of a cafe a lunch order by email. I put my email address on the board and asked them to do the exercise and email it to me.

There was only one reply by this morning when I went to see them. The first girl to enter the class this morning, Jennifer, was the one who sent it. I thanked her and said that I would send it back to her with some small corrections. When the second girl walked into class I asked her about the email and she apologized. I told her to go and stand in the corner with her hands in the air (these students are 23 to 29). She looked a little shocked but then went to do it. As she moved off I told her I was joking. After we all laughed about it she asked me how many replies I got. When told that Jennifers was the only one, she smiled.

When we heard the next students footsteps she stood up and put her hands in the air, and asked Oshio if he had sent his email to me. When he replied that he hadn't she told him he had to put his hands in the air. After he was let into the joke, they both did it for the next student. A good start to the morning. We spent most of the rest of the lesson working on pronunciation of f and v using a tongue twister. Lots of fun.

Keeping them enjoying it is important for a few reasons. If they are laughing they will learn more. If they are enjoying it, they will come, and only 5 of 10 usually turn up. If they are enjoying it, they will renew our contract, the current one runs out at the end of the month. But, for me, the most important reason for teaching like this is that I enjoy it ;).

Sandra's email was waiting for me when I got home ;)

This morning I went back to the tailors to pick up my suit. I bought a tie from him as well. I have been looking for one I like but settled on this one for now. I have attached some pics so you can see what it looks like. I do like the name on the inside of the jacket.

Have a good weekend this weekend.

4 June 2007

Quote of the year: "Just because they get rid of the word gullible doesnt mean that the concept will cease to exist". Enough to have tears running down my face.

1 June 2007

Yesterday I went back to the tailor to be fitted for my suit. The tailor seemed very good at his job, I am betting he has done this thousands of times.

On another front, I have done something that I have been thinking about for a while. Some time ago I decided to learn how to write html, the language used to code webpages. I started a few pages on the free site geocities. I find coding in html easy, but have little graphical imagination, so my webpages dont look very good. I have spent a bit of time since then paying a bit more attention to what I think looks good, and am a little better.

So last week I bought a domain name, and paid for two years of hosting. I have spent a fair bit of my spare time since then putting some pages together. You can find it here...

http://www.peripatetic-one.com/

I have added all of this series of emails to a blog page, you can find a link to the blog on that page. There is still much to do, and I dont yet understand how to run the included photo album software, but will try to sort that out next week.

Sometime ago I spent a fair bit of money to buy some very very nice headphones. A split in the cable just as it goes over the right ear was not a pleasant sight. However, part of the reason I chose the brand I did, Shure, was their excellent reputation for replacing broken product. I sent them off an email, and they sent me one back, from Hong Kong telling me to post them in. Yesterday they told me they had approved their replacement, and sent me a scan of the mail receipt showing that the new set are on their way back :) I am sick of the cheap pair I have been using for the last two weeks.

28 May 2007

It was the 40th of a co-worker on Saturday, and there is a wedding coming up, so we need suits. This happy confluence of events found me with my co-wokers at Iteawon, a suburb near an army base with lots of westerners on Saturday.

We met the soon to be wed couple near the tailors and all went in to get fitted. We were given discounts as they are doing a fair bit of business. Sean is expected to buy his wife to be's male relatives a suit each, and we went along for the ride. Brad bought a suit, two shirts and a sports jacket, Jen bought herself a suit and two shirts, as did I. I am getting a plain black woolen suit, two buttons, no cuffs. I also ordered a black and a white shirt. It was nice being measured up, this is the first time.

I have a fitting on Thursday. Now I am on the hunt for a dark, but electric blue paisley tie, and some shoes.

Today I made up tongue twisters for my classes. These concentrated on the English sounds Koreans have problems with. The first was th, then next was f and v, and the last r and l. Lots of fun.

16 May 2007

Yesterday was teachers day. This is a holiday for students and teachers in the overworked public sector, but not for us hagwon monkeys in the private system.

One reason it has become a holiday was that cash payments were made to teachers by parents in the hope to improve their grades. While we do give out grades, they count for nothing, so we are safe from temptation.

I taught the adults class in the morning, the third one so far. They have enough English to put words like manage, design, and construct into prewritten sentences. However their listening and speaking skills are well behind this. I explained what I thought to them and said we need to do a lot more talking. One of them asked me to tell them about my life. After I did, they asked me if I was lonely. I explained that I had only been single for only 5 months. I was then asked my blood type. This floored me, and I wondered if the young lady asking was wanting to have babies with me! I told them it was O. This came close to eliciting applause!!! This was just as the lesson ended, so I was unable to find out what was going on.

After the class I went to a cafe to study Korean in prep for my class, then to buy a present for my Korean teacher. I bought her a gift wrapped box of potions and lotions from the Body Shop.

After going home for an hours kip, I went to the school to have my lesson. There it was explained to me that many Japanese and Koreans believe that you can predict a personality from blood type!!! My Korean is progressing, but slowly. I am starting to hear more words in general conversation that I overhear, but understand very little.

There are a number of presents dropped off every now and then for the teachers from the parents and students. These are mostly food, 4 boxes of pizza dropped off, some cake, or rice deserts. There is also a slow dribble of chocolate and candy.

However teachers day is a more significant thing. The day before teachers day I was given a gift wrapped box of handmade soaps and a wooden soap holder. Yesterday the teachers room was given two huge boxes of donuts, a crate of fruit juice bottles, a crate of iced coffee, and some cakes.

My personal haul was 4 flowers, one real, one with candy in the stem, and buttonhole one. A pair of socks, a hand made and decorated box with vitamin C supplements, a bottle of aloe juice, a wooden picture frame, two hand phone jewels (mobile phone dangly bits) and a pile of home made and bought cards, as well as various pieces of candy and chocolate. Otherwise the day continued as normal.

I have an advanced class in the morning session. They are in second grade elementary school. We will be working on abridged novels for most of the daily lessons until late July. At the moment we are reading The Little Mermaid. Daily home work is 10 pages of the novel. They must listen to the CD 3 times, find new words in their dictionary, write the Korean meaning in the book, then read it 3 times. After that they have to put the book in another room, and give me a 10 sentence summary. This would be hard for them in Korean, and some found it just too difficult, and reverted to copying key sentences. But yesterday they all did it, poor grammar and spelling included, as I asked for. We then worked on their sentences. One girl, however, does write good sentences. I had my Korean co-teacher talk to her mother to see if she was getting help. Her mother replied that her daughter would not allow her to help as Andrew Teacher has told her she has to do it by herself.

Next year, in elementary school, she will learn the English alphabet. When I explained this to her she slid down into her chair, threw her head back and groaned!!!

This is a fun class to teach. Six students, who just want to learn. I have a set routine I go through every lesson, and they love it. I walk in, hold the books high above the desk, and let them slam down. They all cover their ears and then rate me on the loudness. Then I write up their homework on the board. I will often add and extra zero to the pages or sentences required eliciting howls of protest. When that is settled I mark the roll, calling out the latest nicknames I have given them. I often use Korean ones to help me learn, they love it. Then I go through the homework checking, first I have to sign their parents signature. One has a homework book that is designed for this, and where I have to sign it says 순상님, pronounced sun sang nim, which means teacher. I pretend to read it very very slowly, sounding out each syllable, and then say, pointing at me, "Sun sang nim, thats me!". They join in this chorus, day after day. Weird, I know.

I rant at them, get angry at times, tease them, and make them laugh the whole time. In the 4 months I have been teaching them I have seen their English come a long way. Very satisfying. Dont tell the boss, he might just work out that he doesnt need to pay me.

13 May 2007

This is blog about a big weekend.

The Context:

I have been fairly quiet for the last two weekends, the first I went to a work dinner with many teachers on the Friday night and went out to dinner with a visiting friend on Saturday, The second weekend I stayed in. I attempted to watch both seasons of Twin Peaks, but was unable to do so, as a friend thought I should go out on both Saturday and Sunday shopping with her. I am still not finished it, and in fact am a little disappointed with Lynch's work in this.

Last week I started teaching my adult classes. These are in an office block about 20 minutes walk away. They do webpages that compare prices of electronic gadgets online. The students are in their 20's and seem a pretty good crowd. They dress in casual style, which, I am led to believe, is unusual for Korea, but allows me to dress in the same style, which is how I dress for teaching my kids in the afternoon.

These classes are on Tuesday and Thursday, start at 8:00 am and go for an hour. This leaves me with four hours before the start of my Korean lesson on both those days. I went to a coffee shop and did some study for an hour on both days. I had some food shopping to do, then more study, then my Korean lessons. If you include my lessons I am working for 10 hours on Tuesday and Thursday. I am working in school for 40 hours per week.

Friday night:

After work finished (10pm) I went with a co teacher, Brad, to a local bar run by a Canadian guy where we met some friends, and made a few new ones. A poker game started after a while, and after I had lost all my change the guy I replaced, Brent, and I went to Hongdae, a trendy nightclub district near a very big university. The bar we went to was not that good and we went home fairly quickly (4:30).

Saturday:

I managed to sleep in until 11am. I watched a movie, and did some writing, went to a late lunch with a friend, and finished watching the movie. Barry and I had organised a get together with a group we often spend the weekends with. We met at a Cham chi house, where they will keep serving you raw tuna until you cannot eat any more. Yum.

The Cast:

Brad : 36 year old Canadian, major in Philosophy and European history. I work with Brad. It took me a couple of weeks to understand the gem that Brad is, a true intellectual giant.

Jenn: 36 year old Canadian, major in Business Studies. Jen and Brad have been married for 12 years. She does not come out with us much. Brad and Jen are 4 year veterans of the ESL industry in Korea.

Barry : 28 year old Scot, major in Psychology. Has worked on help lines for more years than is healthy and has clocked up a big credit card debt. He has been here for 8 months now, paying it off. A good looking boy who has to beat the girls off with a stick.

Meiun Shi : 27 year old Korean. She is a director of an English school, and was Barry's boss, until he did the unthinkable, start a relationship with his boss. She may be the best looking Korean girl I have seen. I met her for the first time on Saturday night, she seems a lot of fun.

Sean: 36 year old from New Jersey. Was a professional boxer, has black belts in Tae Kwando, and Hapkido. In a more dangerous country would be good to have around for these skills, but here they are just not needed. I dont know what Sean's degree is in, it may be music related, he has sold some of his music. Sean has been here for 6 years, and is a really great guy who tells side splitting stories.

Yum Meung : 32 year old Korean English teacher. I have met her only twice, Her and Sean have invited me to their wedding at the end of July. One night in a bar I gave her English swearing lessons. She says she will reciprocate with Korean lessons for me when my Korean is a little better.

Brent : 26 year old Canadian, majored in History and Archeology. I replaced Brent when he went home for two months and changed jobs. Brent was an army medic in Bosnia for a while.

Jin Sheum : 24 year old Korean English teacher. I have spent a few weekends with Jin Sehum. She and Brent have been together for something like 8 months.

The first 6 and I went to the Cham Chi house at 7pm, then to a bar nearby at about 10. Brent and Jin Sheum joined us there.

If you paid attention to the above list you will notice that there are 4 couples and me. I have seen some single friends look a little uncomfortable in this situation. For me it was new, and was the first time I really noticed.

The beer was fairly expensive at the bar at USD$5 each, but they were selling a tray with 11 shots of tequila for USD$10. We had a few of these to help with the beer. At one stage I went outside to answer my phone, and there was a Mokoli guy there. Mokoli is a rice wine, with a fair kick. It is generally sold on the streets in recycled PET bottles. I was asked for USD$3 for a bottle, and told him, rudely, in Korean, that was too expensive, then in the very polite form asked for a discount. He laughed and sold it to me for USD$2. I got a pile of paper cups and smuggled it into the bar and we all drank it fairly quickly. The Korean girls were starting to complain about the tequila shots being too much, two of them came around the table and hit me when the Mokoli appeared. :)

I was wearing my favourite tshirt that night. It has the Leunig cartoon of the father showing his son the sunset on the television, when the same sunset can be seen outside the window. At some stage during the evening I swapped this for a black tshirt showing the chemical structure of caffeine. I think it was a good deal.

I am not sure what time the others went home, but I started talking to random people in the street at one stage and ended up at a food stand where I met a group of young Korean girls and guys. It was dawn when they took me dancing in a club nearby. I was there for a while when my homing signal started sounding. A cab ride home fixed that.

I woke at 3pm in the afternoon, about 2 hours ago now, still feeling a little second hand.

I think the weekend so far cost me USD$220, about average for two nights out. I was falling about that much short of my savings goal, USD$1000 per month, but the morning work will bring me in USD$300 per month, so I should be fine. I may be able to take it to 4 mornings a week, which would be perfect.

29 Apr 2007

Well spring is well and truly here. The trees lining the street outside my home are in full bloom and the street looks much nicer for it. I wore a tshirt out for a walk today, and there were people sitting in Paris Park, near my house, on blankets having a picnic.

I have attached some photos of a couple of flowering trees.

I have been offered some extra work, teaching adults in a corporate setting. There is one hour per day available, Monday to Thursday, at USD$40 per hour. I am doing two days to start with, until the end of July, when the contract is up for renewal. I can take all four days any time I want. There is no prep needed, just run through the supplied books, and do conversation afterwards. Pretty easy, and if I take all three, it should come close to covering most of the weekend expenses, which are my biggest cost. I think it will be nice to be teaching adults. Most ESL teachers here supplement their incomes with illegal private teaching, many doubling their fairly nice salaries. However this present offer is legal, as the school that owns my visa is the employer.

There is an offer on the table to go for a free dive in the Busan aquarium with the sharks. The guy making the offer runs diving there, but has little training in marine biology. I get the free dive if I teach him some stuff. :) Right time and place I guess.

Friday night was a work dinner, on the bosses card. We had teachers from our three schools. It was a lot of fun, though a late night.

My Korean lessons are coming along. I am now able to have a simple conversation. Hiring a teacher was a good idea. There are lots of opportunities to do language exchange, but this often results, or so I have been told, in much more English than Korean. I am prepared to pay to avoid this. It has also shown my teacher, who is my co-teacher, that she knows little about the technical aspects of Korean, as I do with English. I think this may give her a better understanding of why she has a better technical understanding of English than people like me. Not sure what I am going to learn next, but it is fun, though hard work. Language does not seem to stick easily for me.

9 April 2007

Saturday. I woke at 10:30 after a good 6 1/2 hours sleep. I had breakfast and met a friend at Costco, a big bulk shopping center. I bought a membership card and went shopping with her. I bought nothing, I was there to buy a card and see what they had. I waved her off in a taxi and started walking back home.

As I crossed a bridge I saw the first fish I had seen in that river. It is very shallow (< 30cm) and the fish were breaking the surface. They were about 30Cm long, and appeared to be spawning. There groups that would be swimming closely together, and then the bigger one would swim more vigorously and the others would get frantic. This occurred for about a minute, then everything would calm down again.

As I walked off Brad called me to meet him to see a couple of ice hockey games. The second division of the world championships is in town. I saw the last period of Australia v Iceland, Australia won, but the large contingent of Canadians I was with thought it a poor game. The second game was South Korea v Israel. The South Koreans won, but the Canadians thought it an even worse game, and the refs poor. They shouted their feelings loudly :)

We walked off to a new bar in the area, owned by a Canadian. I ended up with a prime seat, two friends on my right, and 2 m of free bar space next to me. This meant that most people ordering would stand next to me. I talked to many people that evening. At about 4am I left to walk somebody home who was a little out of sorts. I thought I would be back quickly, and left my jacket in the bar, and here starts the epic. I ended up outside my house at about 5am, realized that the bar was closed, and that my key was in my jacket pocket.

I called the guys I had been at the bar with, and they were a couple of suburbs away. I met up with one and he guided me to the house. We were there until about 7am when we went of for a Kalbi breakfast. Kalbi is a style of meal. You have a charcoal bbq on the table, and they cook pork for you. There are lots of greens to go with it and a small sweet potato in foil each. Very nice, costs USD$5.

Brad's wife has put a black spot for his arrival home. If he isnt home before 3 he isnt allowed home until 9. So we went off to some baths. I should have gone to these before.Huge room, with lots of men and boys in. Walk in, locker for shoes, then another for your clothes. Walk in to a bank of showers against the wall for an initial wash down with a scouring cloth, then off to a stool in front of a bank of mirrors for a shave.

There are 4 pools, 29C, 18C, 35C and 42 C as well as a dry and wet sauna. I was starting to sober up a bit but the sauna's were a little too dehydrating. I spent a couple of hours in the various baths, dozing and going into the showers that where in each pool. These are very powerful jets that I thought might just skin me.

Now mostly sober and refreshed, I waved Brad goodbye and wandered off. I went to the river, saw the fish still spawning, had coffee and dozed in one of their chairs for a while, sat in a busy shopping center, went back to the river and watched some archery, watched more people in a mall, and kept waiting for the bar to reopen. It finally did, and I got home at 1:30. I managed to stay awake until 3:30 so I didn't mess up my sleep patterns too much, but did wake again at 9 and stayed up until 2, chatting to friends. I then had a good 8 hours and am off to work in about 3 more.

28 Mar 2007

The season of Yellow Dust is upon us. Yellow Dust comes from the Gobi Desert and spreads south and east during spring. There was a light rain last night, not enough to wet anything, but enough to take some of the dust out of the air. This left all cars with a new yellow sheen.

From the Wikipedia.....

Asian Dust (also yellow dust, or yellow sand) is a seasonal meteorological phenomenon which affects much of East Asia sporadically during the springtime months. The dust originates in the deserts of Mongolia and northern China where high-speed surface winds and intense dust storms kick up dense clouds of fine, dry soil particles. These clouds are then carried eastward by prevailing winds and pass over China, North and South Korea, and Japan. Sometimes, the airborne particulates are carried much further, in significant concentrations which affect air quality as far east as the United States. Areas affected by the dust experience decreased visibility and the dust is known to cause health problems, such as sore throat and respiratory difficulties, in residents. The dust has been shown to increase the daily mortality rate in one affected region by 1.7%. The effects of the dust are not, however, strictly negative, as it is thought to enrich the soil of the regions where it is eventually deposited by contributing important trace minerals.

There is a monitoring site here....

and you can see that at midnight we kicked into the "Unhealthy Watch" with 413 micrograms per m^3. I have had a cough, again, for the last week or so, and this may be linked to the dust. It certainly was bad last night as I was about to go to bed....

To quote Patricia Barber... "oh, lord, let it rain...." The amount of rain we get should increase over the next couple of months, it would be good to get some now.

On a brighter note, spring is here. While the funny collections of sticks in the streets (5 m trees) have yet to show any color, there are swelling buds. Many bushes are getting increasing coats of green, and many have white or yellow flowers. A few of the smaller trees have flowers, and some of the cherry trees are starting to flower. The next few weeks should be beautiful. :)

5 Mar 2007

I am now fairly settled. I have had a few big nights out over the last week and a bit, but last weekend was much more tame. I went to a friends place on Friday night, and on Saturday night went to see some live jazz. It was fairly good, but I had to go by myself as nobody I know here likes jazz :(.

Yesterday it rained all day, and Brad, a guy I work with, and I went to Techno Mart on the other side of the city. I wanted a new bigger external HD, and he wanted some games and videos. It is in a 8 story building and a bit of a surprise. The top floor is full of food stores, where we had lunch, Italian.

The sales floors below that are all open plan full of stalls. The two below the food level are computer stalls, maybe 200 of them, selling desktops, laptops, and everything you could want to plug into them, as well as software.

Below that is a floor of phone stalls. Again, there are maybe 200 of them. I was about to buy a phone, but he wanted an Alien Residence Card, and I dont have mine yet, so Brad bought that phone. It cost him USD$80, including one months calls. Below that are two floors of mixed stalls, selling cameras, mp3 players, gps systems for cars (very big here), and other tech toys. Below that are two floors selling consumer electronics like televisions, whitegoods, etc. Amazing place.

So today I went back to Immigration to re-apply for my Alien Card. I had been there before, and was asked for a copy of my schools business license. So this time I had a copy, but kept it in my folder until I was asked. Then I was asked for another photo, which I whipped out. The woman behind the counter seemed disappointed, But she took the lot, as well as my passport, and gave me a piece of paper telling me I can get my card in two weeks. Then I can get a phone. :)

I like the pedestrian lights here. There are green triangles on the left indicate how much longer you have left to cross. I guess each bar takes 10 seconds to go? It reminds me of Phnom Phen where there is a large countdown timer indicating how much longer you have to wait at the red light.

This weekend I am off to Chagwon, a 5 hour express bus ride away, in the southeast corner of Korea to visit a friend there. I will get on the bus at 11:30 on Friday night, and catch a midnight bus back on Sunday. That should get me back in time to catch the first of the subways home, and a few hours kip before going to work at 2pm on Monday.

19 Feb 2007

Today, Monday is a public holiday, and I am taking a well earned rest. But I have found something that doesnt seem to be know about in the west. I am sure you all remember Push Me Pull You, the two headed horse in Dr Doolittle?

Well please find attached a photo of the remains....

17 Feb 2007

Monday is a public holiday, Solal, or the Lunar New Year. Seoul is quiet as many have left town to visit family in the country.

I went for a walk today with Brad, a coworker, to Itaewon, a suburb near the big U.S. army base. There are a lot of western stores there, and I was after vanilla beans. I could have caught the subway, but walked instead. It was about 16 km.

On the way I saw a road rage incident turn to a fight, though only a few punches were thrown. The first thing of the kind I have seen here.

As we crossed the Han River a bus blew its engine, leaving a trail of very thick white dense smoke.

This sign was on the bridge....

I did manage to get the beans :)

14 Feb 2007

After some busy times getting used to how it all works here I will have a few days to catch my breath this weekend. I spent the first weekend here trying to understand how to get about Seoul, the second weekend moving into and cleaning my apartment, the next one being sick with one of 4 or 5 cold/flues and last one out and about to the, well, later than the wee hours, and moving into the bigger hours of the morning.

This weekend is a long weekend, with Monday a holiday for Chinese New Years. I dont know what I am going to do yet. I am planning on hunting down some vanilla beans, and seem to have a lead on a store with some. I am looking at walking there, about 14 km, but it seems an easy route. I also want some binoculars.

Today, being Valentines, I was given piles of chocolate by my students. Being a teacher here has a few lurks. There is also a national Teachers Day, May 20, which should be a holiday, but isnt. It is also, sadly, now illegal to give teachers money for this day. However lots of yumminess is given instead.

7 Feb 2007

My last lesson for the evening is with three kids, turning 14 this year. They have fairly full days. Though school is short, the after school "academies" such as I work in, can pile the hours one.

One boy has it fairly easy. Today he went to school 8am until 1pm. Then he did homework with a friend for an hour. He went to a math academy from 4:00 until 5:30, and then was with me from 8:00 until 9:30.

The girl also has an easier day. She did school from 8:00 until 1:00 pm, then on Monday, Wednesday and Friday she does math academy from 6:00 until 8:00. Thursdays she goes to Korean language academy from 2:30 until 4:00. She has English academy with me and the Korean English teacher from 8:00 until 9:30 every evening.

The third kid, a boy, had the toughest day. He did school from 8:00 until 1pm, piano academy from 1:30 until 2:30, homework from 3:00 until 4:30, math academy from 5:00 until 7:00, and English frmo 8:00 until 9:30. Altogether he has spent nine hours at school, and from what I have seen, that nine hours is all class, no breaks!!

But they seem happy, they enjoy learning, though at times they can be a little tired, and distracted. I find that lots of noise, laughter and general craziness in class keeps them awake, and wondering what is coming next. Just the sort of classroom I like.

2 Feb 2007

Well I have finished my first week teaching, and have enjoyed it despite being sick for most of it. I have had what seems like three different colds. At the moment I am almost better, a bit of a cough and some sniffles. Lots of new bugs for me in a city this big.

My days sort of look like this: I leave home at about 1:30 pm and arrive after about 10 minutes. I spend the next 50 minutes getting ready for the days teaching. Each class has a folder supplied. When the semester starts there will be page numbers of the books we are covering in there as well, but as this is the last month of the semester the system is much more chaotic. Many students dont have the appropriate books, so I need to make up photocopies for them. Some classes are finished their books, so I have to do actual lesson planning for them as well. I have cleaned it up a bit, and will see to the decoration as time goes by.

Class sizes are from three to six.

One class I enjoy has six boys, they are about 10, and they are working their way through a math book. The math is very easy for them, but having to do their sums in English with English digits is the challenge. Their math is about the same standard as 12 year old Australian kids. They have nearly finished their books, and so I just use that for homework. The lesson consists of me putting up five sentence problems on the board. They have to copy them down, and then work them out. I am trying to hide the math problem in English. They are getting good at sifting it out. They are very dedicated, despite it being 7:30 pm when we finish.

The first two lessons of the day are with students I have either on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, or Tuesday and Thursday. The last six lessons are classes I see each day at the same time, so there are eight lessons per day. Lessons start at 2:30pm and finish at 9:30 pm. There is a five minute break between lessons. There is a dinner break from 5:55 pm until 6:30 pm. At that time we have take away food delivered for the three foreign teachers and the two Korean teachers. This is Korean food. So there is uaually a bowl of soupy/noodles, a small bowl of rice and another container of bits and pieces, all very nice, and fairly healthy. Another big difference about Korean takeaway is the lack of disposable containers. Stainless steel or crockery bowls, and stainless steel cutlery. The bowls have a small bit of clingflim across the top to prevent them spilling during delivery. The scooter rider picks the box back up when we are finished. This costs me about AUD$5 per day.

30 Jan 2007

Moved into my new apartment on Saturday, at about lunch time. I was cleaning until 10pm, it was a pigsty!!!

As you can see it is not very big, but is a nice enough place. There is floor heating, keeping the room at about 24 degrees, or more cheaply, at about 18 degrees. There is a fair bit of draw space, but no hanging cupboards, and no oven :(

Here are some pics

I have not turned the TV on as I plan to just download what I want to see. So far I have season 6 and 7 of West Wing. Season 7 is currently airing on the ABC, and I am missing it. I promise not to tell you what is happening!

Did my first day teaching yesterday, though I was being observed by the teacher I am replacing. Today I am by myself :) It will become easier next semester, starting at the end of March, at the moment I am having to make up a fair bit of supplementary work.

28 Jan 2007

I have now moved in, and spent 8 hours cleaning up after the last occupant. I have finished doing my washing, and bought a new keyboard, mouse and speakers for my laptop.

27 Jan 2007

Lets start with Thursday evening. I went to the school for afternoon observation. Afterwards I went to my apartment with its currrent resident, a Canadian teachrer who is about to go home for a months well deserved break. I was there to show him which of his throwoutable possesions I wanted. That night I had litttle sleep, my mind thinking about what I wanted to keep, what I wanted for the apartment, and how I would arrange the furniture to satisfy my wants for the next year.

After about four hours sleep I went back to the school for my last days observation. However the morning was spent with all the schools students going to the movies. We watched Arrogon, a tale about a dragon rider. Perfect for the students.

Then we had to organise the handover with the above Canadian so I know what to do on Monday.

But the Friday night was a night out, paid for by the boss, to welcome me and send the Canadian (Brent) off. This was at a small Korean resturant with frying stations, on a long table. Much food was had from about 7 pm until 12 pm. After that the boss took those remaining to a pub where some others met us. These included a Scott, and a guy from New Jersey. The guy from New Jersey has been teaching English in Korea for the last three years.

Later Brent and another Canadian, (Brad) who I am sure you will hear more about, and I went to a Nori Bang. This place is like a private Karioke place. We hired a room for just the three of us. I was surprised, I really enjoyed it. We had a great time.

At 5:30, we went to a breakfast place, and had a noodle soup.

It is something like 6am now, I am in an internet cafe on the way back home. I will be moving to my new apartment today at 2 pm. Looking forward to that :)

22 Jan 2007

Well today I was meant to move into an apartment for the next week, but something went wrong and I am still in the motel. I dont mind this as the motel is comfortable. However this does mean I am still in a PC bang for email. The teacher I am replacing has been here for three years, taking three contracts in three different schools. He says this one is the best and the apartment I will inherit from him is the best he has had so far. I saw the building today, it is on a main road, but with the double glazing I probably wont hear a thing. Looks like I landed with my bum in the butter again. :)

Today I was picked up and taken to the school and spent the morning watching 4 teachers take their classes. There is a Canadian couple, another Canadian, and Zac the director. Their teaching styles seemed abrupt to me given the ages of the kids (6 - 9) but it did seem to go down well. All the kids have English names, and also a second nickname. So one boy is called Richard, but his nickname is Mr. Perm. They seem to enjoy this.

I watched a variety of lessons, all of very high standard, in fact the 9 year olds have better English skills than some of the 15 year olds I have taught in Australia. I will have to improve my formal English skills to keep up with them!!

The classrooms are small and seem crowded, but at the moment the kids are on school holidays so those at the school are doing their winter intensives. There are 8 - 10 per class, compared to the 20 - 25 I taught and 30 - 40 I learnt in. After the winter intensives we will be back to a more "normal" setup of 4 - 8 per class.

New seefood ;) today, Razor fish, which is a large (20 - 40 cm bivalve) shellfish that sticks up out of the sand.

I have been having some lovely dumplings (like Tibetan momos) with pork or Kim Chi, very nice. A big meal of these costs about AUD$2.20 Also some little pastry, dough things filled with sweet bean paste. I dont think sugar is added to this, but it is sweet. School supplied lunch today. A container with 4 different dishes (small) and rice. One of the dishes was made of small crabs, about 2 cm wide, eaten with the shell. Very tasty :)

21 Jan 2007

Nobody here wears sunglasses!!!! I wear them most times I am outside, and just realised today that nobody else does. With my bald head I must appear as some underbuffed and overweight Val Kilmer!!!

20 Jan 2007

I had another job today, to get some adaptor plugs. I have Australian plugs on my phone charger, laptop, portable HD and iPod charger, U.S. plug on my camera charger and U.K. plug on my shaver. I went for a 1.5 hour walk to a subway station (walking past a number of other stations) and then caught a subway to the markets. I bought 5 universal adaptors for USD$5 each. When I go back to the motel I will be able to charge all my batteries. Last night I used the last of the laptop battery to charge my iPod.

On the way back I went into another large market to buy some lunch. I sat down at a food bar and the lady spoke no English and my rudimentary Korean was not sufficient. At first she seemed keen, then it all went a bit sour. I was puzzled at first then worked out she wanted money first. When that was cleared up (AUD$6) she was all smiles and realised that I wasnt trying for a free meal, but just didnt understand. Great noodle soup dish, with some pork and Kim Chi on the side. She then gave me back $4 :). It was a really nice meal. She seemed embarrased that I didnt understand. I thanked her in the polite form, using most of my Korean to do so.

This evening I will spend at least an hour improving my Korean. I am sick of feeling stupid. I have the minimum, hello, goodbye, sorry, please, thank you and excuse me. I need much more!

There were three more seafoods I hadnt seen before, live sea cucumbers, about 5 in a plastic bag, tanks with live echiurans (peanut worms) and bundles of about 20 dried squid tentacles. There were about 1.2 m long! At first I thought they must be octopus, but when I looked the suckers were only on the ends. I would love to see one of those squid whole. I want to buy a good Korean cooking book, one with pictures of the food in the markets so I can identify some of the things in there and start cooking it when I am in my own home.

One more day left before I start work. I might do the tourist thing tomorrow and go into central Seoul. I also want a better map, the Lonely Planet ones are just not good enough.

19 Jan 2007

Today I wanted to buy a book to read. I looked in the Lonely Planet for a bookshop and found one in a mall about 10 subway stops from my hotel that looked good. I had to catch one line for three stops and then transfer to another line. Feeling energetic I decided to see if i could walk to the transfer stop. It took an hour and was a nice, if crisp walk.

I went to the mall, bought a book and returned home, walking back from the transfer stop. I have noticed a few different things about the place, and thought they might show you how I am seeing this place.

Street stalls, like the other places in Asia I have visited, but in a affluent setting.
Crazy wiring, but not as crazy as Bangkok, or Delhi.
Nobody crosses against the lights
The motorcycles have these big glove things on the handle bars to keep your hands warm while riding.

Very little racial diversity. I have seen about 5 westerners, and no black people.
More apartment towers than the Gold Coast (orders of magnitude here).
Lots of people in big jackets with hoods, but the hoods are off today.
PC bangs (internet cafes) everywhere (about every 100 m on a main road), with the most comfy chairs I have sat in.
Fish markets have lots of other stuff, squid, cuttlefish, ascidians, abalone (live) and lots of different fish, live, on ice, salted or dried.

Fruit stall, and vege stalls, not in the same stall.
There is a Go channel on the tv. Go is a strategy game, very difficult. You place black or white markers on a board (30 x 30 squares?) and attempt to surround batches of your opponents pieces. There is a person who discusses the strategy as the game progresses but it is in Korean (of course) so I cant understand it :(
Vege stalls have seaweed (fresh), it is not in the seafood stalls.
Fruit stalls dont have much variety, but very very big apples.
Kim Chi stalls.
Subway announcements are in Korean, then English.
Subway writing is the same.
The above two are a bit of a surprise given the low level of westerners.
In the food halls you take your tray back to the stall you got it from.
People eating by themselves leave their bags, laptops and coats on their chairs when they take their tray back, showing a level of trust not seen in Australia.
There are lots of pushbikes locked up at the subway stations, but only through one wheel. In Australia this might result in you finding only one wheel when you got back, or you might be missing a seat.
Cheap electronics :)
Phones everywhere, on everyone, and being used all the time.

I have been avoiding western food so far, having Kim Chi (nice) and other dishes. I am sure I will want to have some western food before long, but am prepared to wait so far.

I met my boss last night. Seems like a nice guy. I will be doing observation starting on Monday, but will also be moving on Monday. At the moment I am in a motel, nice but about AUD$65 per night. On Monday I move into a 3 room apartment owned by one of the financeers of the school. Then the next Saturday I move into my real apartment. Still waiting to see what that is like, but was told it is bigger than my motel room, so it should be fine.

My Korean still sucks, but I am starting to work on it.

18 Jan 2007

I was met at the airport and put in a taxi and taken to a hotel, altogether the easiest arrival I have ever had. After a few hours sleep I went for a bit of a walk down the main road near my hotel.

I ended up in a sit on the floor resturant with a fantastic bowl of soup with a least one billion ingredients ;) Very nice. One of the staff came over a couple of times to show me how to do a few things. Very different chop sticks, stainless steel, and flattish near the end.

Lots of people in warm clothes, I saw a motorbike parked on the footpath that had these big leather things around the handgrips. The idea was they would not only keep the wind off your hands, but seal up around them and they were heated!

I need to buy some shoes I can *easily* take on and off, it seems I will need to do it very often.

I need to spend some more time on the language, I have been very slack. Still there appears to be a bit more incentive now I am here.

Still, I have managed to eat and do internet, so I can survive :)

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