Ben's Final Thoughts...

...OF course it would be ridiculous of me to attempt to summarize exactly what I have been through in the last twelve months in one blog entry.

I do however feel that it is necessary to do a little bit of reflection on the last year in terms of my experiences (and my emotions.) My time in Korea, let's face it, was a unique opportunity, and despite what I left behind in England, and what I sacrificed I would definitely go through the who thing again for the same outcome.

I'm pretty sure that since I have come back I have settled into life as a resident of the UK once more, just fine, though I certainly feel as if I have been forever changed, and hopefully matured after what I have been through. Though I can share stories with my friends of my time out in Korea, it's difficult to tell one story which sums up my experiences (something which Charlie, Kevin and I frequently discussed.) The only people who can really understand what we have been through are those around us and, for a brief time, the people who came to visit us.

I still remember the nervous tension that I felt on Easter Saturday 2009 when I boarded a plane and headed to the other side of the world. It was a feeling like no other of heading into the unknown, and being unsure of whether I had made the right decision or not.

I remember my first night of getting there and meeting Kevin and Charlie, I was doing my best to take everything in that was going on around me, and also to learn as much as I could.

There wasn't really much time for a direct adjustment as such because on my first morning of being there I was thrust into the classroom and was trying to do my best to learn about the job that I was brought over there to do.

I guess there are two ways to look at the experiences I have had, in terms of my job, and then the wider social world of living in South Korea.

Let's deal with the teaching side of things first.

Having no teaching experience, other than a few hours in the classroom helping my mum, and an online TEFL course before I left. I really had no ideas about what to expect when I arrived. I guess that you could say that I learnt on my feet with some pretty tough on the job training, as after an initial few classes of being shown what to do I was made to stand on my own two feet and lead a class in just my second day of being in Korea. In a way that experience was good as it made me have to learn pretty damn quickly what teaching English to children was all about.

I have never been someone who is particularly good with kids. I have no experience being being around them, and that's the ones who speak the same language as me. It was pretty tough to know what to do or say when you are teaching kids who speak no English whatsoever in your classroom and I'll admit there were some pretty challenging times. I enjoyed the level of difficulty sometimes, and I paticularily enjoyed working with the kindergarten children who frequently brought a smile to my face with their antics. I may have lost a few of them along the way but it was a really good feeling when the few of them that remained graduated, and I wish I was able to see in a few years exactly how they have grown up, and if they still remember me of course.

Due to my working schedule, I spent a lot of time working with a lot of the younger kids, and even though I would have liked to work with a range of ages, I felt like I was able to adapt my teaching style to working with them on a daily basis. I would definitely say that one of the things that I miss about Korea are the kids that I taught, specially the ones who were with me from the start. I felt like I built up a great bond with them, and whether that meant I was able to teach them better, I'm not really too sure. In those classes, I can certainly say that there was never a day when I dreaded going into teach them. A couple of others.... not so much!

If someone was looking for advice from me about whether or not to teach English in Korea I would definitely be an ambassador for them giving it careful consideration, though depending on the individual I would in some cases make them aware of the kinds of things they are going to have to deal with. I'm not saying that I am any kind of Superman, but I have seen cases whilst I have been there of people who haven't been able to handle it at all and wished they had never made the decision to go there. Teaching English in Korea isn't for everyone, and though I may not strike people from the outside as someone who would be capable of doing it I think I am open minded enough to have been able to cope with the issues likely to be encountered.

I would say to anyone thinking about it that I would be willing to offer them good advice, but at the end of the day my experiences mightn't be like theirs and I wouldn't say that they should definitely follow what I say.

On the other hand, in terms of visiting Korea I would agree to that being a phenomenal idea. I have always wanted to visit South Korea for a long time, and when I got the opportunity to live there I think I certainly got more than I bargained for. The only country in Asia that I have ever been to is China, and even then that was only for four days. Korea totally blew my mind, and I am sure that the people who visited me there can agree that it was very far from their expectations.

As soon as you mention Korea all that seems to be conjured up in people's minds is North Korea and their nuclear weapons, danger and all the rest of it. I would have to say that having lived in Korea, the reality couldn't be any different. I found the country to be extremely safe, the people to be very friendly and the food to be amongst the most delicious that I have ever tasted.

From the first moment I stepped in the classroom with the kids I found the people to be very welcoming, and despite being a foreigner in a country where people speak a totally different language, I discovered that people are actually willing to be very helpful to you.

In terms of language, of course it was tough not to be able to speak Korean, but considering that I managed to survive for a year, I feel like it was a huge barrier, but certainly not a deal breaker. I learnt to speak a small amount of Korean and learned to be able to read the Korean alphabet but that's about as serious as my studies got, perhaps if there weren't so many opportunities to avoid having to speak Korean then things would have been different!

Korean culture is very different to our own, and although I sometimes struggled with the fact that old people seemed to be able to do what they wanted, and starring isn't seen as a taboo activity like it is over here, I would say that I found it a pleasure to experience a vastly different culture for a long period of time. I think that people who have lived in a country such as England for a long time get stuck in their ways and we tend to become quite ignorant about 'foreigners' living in our country. When it's the other way round however, you really learn how difficult life can be as the minority, and I certainly feel that several thousands of people in this country could do with that positive experience in their life.

Korea offered me a variety of different experiences which I throughly enjoyed whilst I was there. A number of places that I went to see and visit were spectacular and I think to say that tourism doesn't play a huge part in Korean life that several of the landmarks and sights were throughly unique and I can only hope that other people get the chance to experience such delights.

I definitely look back on my whole Korean experience as a positive one, and I could sit and speak (or write in this case) about the country for hours on end, but I think if you were ever considering going there then it would be only positive vibes that you were getting from me.

I will NEVER EVER forget the experience I have of living in another country, and I am glad that I was able to spend my time in such a diverse and unique place.

The End???? (Better Late Than Never)

SINCE what seems like an eternity ago when I last wrote on my blog, I think it's fair to say that countless things have changed in my life.

I don't really know where to begin with summing up all the events, and all my emotions but I felt that I needed to certainly give this blog some symmetry (and perhaps myself some closure) by writing what could be the final entry in my blog.

Let's do a quick recap for those who have either not been informed or are a little slow on the uptake of recent events!

At the end of February a couple of my friends, Luke and James, came to stay with me for a couple of weeks. Unlike other visitors I had in Korea, the pair of them didn't exactly take in the full Korean experience but they did enjoy their time, eating some good food, spending time in a new culture and also meeting some interesting new people.

The only place that the three of us headed out to whilst they were around (except for a handful of shops and restaurants) was the COEX Mall in Seoul, which is basically a huge shopping centre and also houses a couple of museums and an aquarium. In my attempt to be a good tour guide we headed to the aquarium in their first couple of days there, and then thanks to a combination of jet lag and/or laziness, the other two other places of significance they experienced were Charlie's room, and my room!

I did manage to coax the pair of them into the classroom for a little while before they left, and they seemed to enjoy themselves in a very different environment to what they might be used to. They met some of my more advanced students and understood exactly what I had been 'dealing' with in the last couple of years.

Before they headed back home to England they were around to receive the shock news that I was also to be heading home much earlier than estimated. It's a long story how that all came to pass but to give you the edited version, the Kindergarten program that I was devoting a lot of my working hours to was due to end in February, and rather than having to take classes off other people (who would also need amended schedules as they were leaving) Talkster decided to offer me the opportunity of an early release from my contract and a six week advance on the time that I was due to head back home.

It was pretty weird at first to be honest. I had been fully prepared to see out my contract until April, even though I was missing home by this stage very much. What I figured was going to be a six week process in waving goodbye to Korea turned out to be a four day process with very little time to go round and plan to do anything. In that time it was also difficult to cope, because my friends were still with me, and there wasn't much of an opportunity to do much because I was also working!

In the end I managed to get myself sorted out, using my last day in Korea to spend time with the people who had become my whole life in the last year, and although it wasn't exactly how I planned things, I was pleased to be able to get the opportunity. At the time it didn't seem very real that I would be coming back to England, and as I sit here writing this now, even though I have been back for two weeks, it feels like much more time has passed by. I still find it weird that I am back at home.

Once I had managed to collect all my belongings up (which took a surprising amount of time) and headed out to my flight early Sunday morning it became a reality that I was actually coming back. I decided to keep it as a surprise from everyone back home as I felt that with all the time that was supposed to go between then and when I was actually supposed to come back, I could get some very priceless reactions from my friends and family (many of them who probably still don't know that I am around!

So that's how things worked out in the end I guess, it's good to be home, but I was also very sad to leave Korea behind (as you will know if you read my next planned entry.) I don't think there's anyway that I will ever be able to sum up my experiences in Korea, and very few of the unique ones can have justice done to them by explanation. I hope I have done my best to get my points across throughout the ten and a half months that I was here and I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has stuck with me through all of this!

"Every end is a new beginning"

Proverb

A Mexican in Itaewon....

SADLY I am yet again unable to provide pictoral evidence that I didn't just sit in my room all weekend but like last weekend when Ice Skating was the only exciting thing on the adgenda, this weekend's activity probably isn't worth blogging about but I am still disappointed about how little I have been blogging recently.

One of our friends, Marie, was celebrating her birthday this weekend, and was kind enough to invite Kevin, Charlie and I to celebrate it with her. Her, and it seemed like pretty much every foreigner in Suwon and Seoul, were all headed to Itaewon, which is one of the military base areas in the capital, for the evening so we decided to join in the 'party' and actually do something with our weekend for a change.

Despite the temperature dropping to below freezing for about the 100th day in a row we braved the weather and boarded the train to Yongsan, before catching a cab over to Itaewon, which is about five minutes away. It's pretty ridiculous to think that first the first six months we were here, and heading to Yongsan regularily, we were taking a 1h 30 min subway ride, but these days we are able to get there in about 25 mins, in the comfortable seated surroundings of a train! How different our stay might have been had we not had to board the damn subway to get everywhere!

Anyway once we were there we met Marie and she showed us the Mexican restaurant where we were eating dinner. Being in Itaewon was a pretty surreal experience to be honest. Maybe this says something about how long I have been in Korea for now, but it was actually a shock to see that it was pretty much 50/50 in terms of foreigners to Koreans. A ratio that I have always been on the negative side of (baring my week in Thailand) It's not that I was put off by this of course, but it did seem very strange to be surrounded by so many western people.

The Mexican restaurant where we were was already filled with alot of Marie's friends and we got chatting with a few of them before ordering our meal. Kevin and Charlie are big fans of Mexican food so they were pretty pleased to be eating there, but not having much experience I was just delighted to be eating something different for a chance (no offense Korea!) I think that my six or so experience of eating Mexican have proved that I do actually like it quite alot, and although we're not lucky enough to have Taco Bell or anything in England I look forward to the oppertunity to sample it's cuisine in the near future.

I had a combination meal of a chicken taco and a chicken burrito (inventive I know) it was extremely delicious and for around 15,ooo won it was well worth it.

After eating we headed off to meet some of the group who had headed to a bar which was just down the road from the restaurant and then we went to another place, which pretty ridiculously was laid out like a beach with deck chairs and sand everywhere! But as it started to get late, the three of us flakes were getting tired and decided to head back to Suwon.

Grabbing a delicious Moroccan sandwich for the ride (I know, I'd just eaten right) we got back to Suwon after some much needed fresh air and a good evening in the company of friends.

Speaking of which, next weekend I am playing tour guide for (possibly) the final time in Korea as my friends James and Luke are coming over from England to visit me. They will be arriving on Friday morning and staying for a couple of weeks, in my extremely small room. It's going to be good to have some familar faces around and show two of my closest friends exactly what I have been doing with my life in the next nine months, and hopefully it will make another two weeks pass by as time drizzles away on me heading back home and leaving Korea behind.

The foreigner football season also kicks into effect for it's spring season soon which is something to look forward to. Considering I have done very little exercise over the winter, and not kicked a ball since our last game it is going to be an extremely interesting first training session! To be honest it will just be nice to do something but go to work, eat or sleep!

Well, that's my blogging finished for the week. I hope that wherever you are spring is close to arriving, it's still pretty cold in Suwon, but hopefully we are leaving the snow behind us.

Take care

Ben xxxx

“The best way to waste your life, ... is by taking notes. The easiest way to avoid living is to just watch. Look for the details. Report. Don't participate.”

Chuck Palahniuk

Ice Skating... (Now with added picture-y goodness)

...FINALLY able to escape the classroom for a little while, Friday was as much of a treat for me as it was for the kids.

Each month in Kindergarten we have some kind of organised activity but as it's turned out, every single one of them since September has involved doing something in the classroom (except the Halloween party, but that was still within the grounds of Talkster.)

Thankfully this month, the last month before the kids leave, we'd managed to work it into the schedule so that this months activity was to be able to go ice skating.
Korean's are pretty big on ice skating as Kim-Yu-Na, the number one ranked ice dancer, is one of the countries national heroes (not quite on as big-a scale as Park Ji Sung, but she sure is popular!) But despite that I wasn't expecting too much from the ice rink that we would be heading too.

As it turned out, it was actually of a decent standard as it was home to Suwon's Ice Hockey team (yeah, I didn't realise they had one either) and there was actually quite a lot of people there when we turned out. Possibly because it was the last official day of school holidays for children.

Once we'd geared up with skates and helmets, yes, helmets. It was time to take a first few daunting steps onto the ice and to make the kids feel a little better about themselves I decided to go first. It's been about a year or so since I actually donned a pair of ice skates but after steadying myself for a few seconds I was pretty confident about not falling over.
The kids on the other hand....they had a few issues.

Andrew, the oldest kid in my class was actually a pretty decent skater. He could manage to make it around at a pretty good pace without too many incidents of him falling over. Elizabeth, the only girl in the class, started off at a struggle but once she stopped relying on me for momentum she actually managed to pick it up pretty well.
Larry, who I expected to struggle with skating, took some time to pick it up and by the second hour of us skating he'd managed to ensure that on average he only fell over one time every circuit.

Now I'm not sure how I was the first time I set foot on ice but I'm pretty sure that Sun, who struggled most with skating, was an accurate representation of how I might have got on. I'm not entirely sure of what his problem was, but I reckon that it took roughly five seconds before he fell over, and once I'd picked him up, it was roughly three seconds before he fell over again.
He really just couldn't cope with being on the ice at all.

No sonner had he stood up was he on the floor again, and the problem, not very accurately diagnosed can only be through his confidence that he was going to be able to skate as fast as everyone that he saw there. As soon as his legs were about to fall from underneath him, he'd panic and start moving his legs even faster.....the outcome of this was obviously for him to call over quicker than he was already going to.

It's tough to count the amount of times that I had to pick the poor kid up of the floor but at least there were no tears and he was quite happy to get back up on his feet and try again!
I was extremely impressed with the kids and their attitude actually, because I'd say that ice skating is very difficult and even as an adult if I wasn't able to do it then I would be getting pretty frustrated with the amount of times that I feel over. But they always had a big smile on their faces and would pick themselves back up and try again.

Unfortunately despite finding it necessary to blog about the most interesting I have done in the last couple of weeks, I am relying on someone elses photos to show picture evidence that I was actually able to get out of the classroom for an afternoon. Hopefully I'll be able to attach them soon.

Apologies about the lack of recent blogs folks, I haven't been up to very much at all and it seems that it is finally coming to 'winding down' time in terms of my activities. Something that I was hoping wouldn't happen....Hopefully within the next few weeks I'll have some more entertaining things to blog about....

Ben xxx

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

Sir Francis Bacon

Nightclub Leads to Early Morning, Korean Movie Excellence and a Return to the Golf Course.....

.... I KNOW that I frequently like to claim that time in Korea goes by really quicky but the weekend that just went by was an absolute blur....

No sooner had I shut my eyes on Saturday morning (I'll get to the reasons why later) it seems to be Monday morning and time to return to the classroom once again.

Last week, on my birthday no less, marked the nine month anniversary of my arrival in Korea, and it was quite fitting then that despite the pace at which this weekend went by, it will be one of the ones which I remember when I disappear back home back home to England in three short months.

Those of you who have been checking out my pictures over the last three quarters of the year will realise that during the night, Korea is rather lively. I've commented several times on the number of restaurants, bars and even some shops which are open until rather unexpected times in the morning.
Its probably quite a surprise that the three of us have not made more of the Korean nightlife, but this weekend we decided to make up for that (in a big way!)

Since the Inter Suwon night out way back in November, Hans has been telling us that he would be able to give us a 'Korean style' night out and this week he made plans for us to go to a Korean Night-eu (which is basically a Korean Nightclub.) The three of us hardly knew what to expect but the fact that when we went for dinner on friday Hans had some small pieces of paper with notes written down about the night, we were eager to find out exactly what was going on.

After we finished dinner we headed in the direction of Yeongtung, just south of Hwaseo and after a couple of drinks and a game of darts in NOW bar we were taken to an anonamous looking building in the middle of the mess of bars and restaurants which are there. On the top floor of this building, seemingly hidden away from society, was out destination for the evening. The Nightclub.

We'd questioned Hans a few times about whether or not foreigners were actually allowed in this place, as he said that he'd never once seen any of them go in before but what was extremely hilarious was the look on the peoples faces when we walked in.
The guy who Hans had 'booked' it all with, met us at the front entrance and when he turned round and saw that we were with him, his lower jaw dropped to the floor like an acme cartoon characters does before they are about to be blown up by dynamite.
That reaction in itself was worth the 90,000 won that we paid to get in!

Once he'd calmed himself we were taken to a 'private' room down the many windy corridors. Laid out in the room were drinks and plenty of food, and it from the first look of it, it was actually a lot like the Norebang (Karaoke rooms) which the three of us have been in on a couple of occasions.
So the room was ours for the evening and the four of us spent the evening chatting, singing and drinking with a ton of different people who upon seeing us were probably eager, like most Koreans, to find out if we were real or a figment of their imagination.

About six hours later and the three of us are starting to look at our watches because its 5.30am and we're still not in bed! It was at that point that we made an executive decision to go home and I think by the time I finally got into bed on saturday morning it was close to 6.00am!
Of course the next morning my body automatically woke me up at 9.15am (usual work time) but I was having none of that and headed back to bed until at least 12.30pm when I decided to wake up and have a shower.

Charlie woke up not long after so the pair of us went out for dinner and later in the afternoon Hans called round to see if we wanted to watch a dvd with him.
After the last couple of movies he's rented out from the shop for us were pretty decent we decided to change genre a little and we watched a movie called 'My Sassy Girl' (rough English translation!)
I think I'd actually heard of it before and the next couple of hours were spent enjoying the movie and (trying not to let the early morning get the better of me)

Needless to say that I slept like a hibernating bear on Saturday night and not even the lure of watching basketball could force me to wake up early!

Sunday was mostly spent planning exactly what I was going to go at work this morning and for the rest of the week but once Charlie and Kevin had awoken I took some time out of school work to go and get some lunch and play screen golf. Once I'd worked out how to play again I think I put in one of the more consistent performances I have since we discovered the joys of playing golf inside. The three of us did our best this time not to show ourselves up in front of the owner, Choi, who asked if he could join in with our game!
It goes without saying that owning a screen golf establishment he was pretty good and he probably made us look quite foolish!

So that was the weekend, but as I said, back to work this morning. My first full week of work as a 25 year old....

Take care

Ben xxxx

The best way to get something done is to begin.
Anon

Happy Birthday to Me....

...OK, so it wasn't quite so bad that I had to wish myself a Happy Birthday, but just like Christmas and New Year 2009, it was certainly strange experiencing my 25th birthday in a different country.

Thanks to everyone who sent me messages and cards, it made me not feel quite so isolated from my family and friends on the opposite side of the world. Like so many things to date in Korea, it was a surreal experience 'celebrating' a birthday over here.

I've never been one for massive plans, but spending the day at work wasn't exactly the ideal birthday choice had I had one! I told most of my kids that it was my birthday, and most of them have the vocabulary to say 'Happy Birthday', the obvious question was 'Teacher, how old are you?' but considering most of the classes I teach don't know anything past the numbers 1-20 they weren't able to guess very effectively.

Aside from my birthday, my first full week back at work has been pretty uneventful. We're still struggling with the snow over here, and the last few evenings, the temperature has dropped to between -10 and -20.....

On Wednesday I took the kindergarten class I teach to get their 'Graduation' photographs taken. I probably haven't mentioned it as I didn't realise myself until Sunday evening but I only have about a month and a half left teaching the kids in the morning before they have finished their year in kindergarten, thankfully for them, not all taught by me.
I think it's pretty traditional within the 'American' culture of the schools in Korea to have pictures taken for when they 'graduate' the kindergarten and my kids actually got some really good photos taken, as well as a couple of group shots which I hope to get a hold of.

With the weather pretty frozen outside, most anything we do at the weekend will probably involve being inside. But obviously I will update you on Sunday with exactly what I got up to.....

Just a quick not this evening (and a couple of days late) to let you know about my birthday celebrations, or lack there of.

Take care

Ben x

A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.

Edmond de Goncourt
French artist & novelist (1822 - 1896)

First Week Back at Work, Visitors and an Avatar Repeat...

....Well it wasn't quite a full week back at work, but after the snowy fun of Monday, Tuesday represented my first day back teaching since the Christmas break.

Because of the snow there had been over the weekend and due to the temperature which has been around in the air for the last three weeks, school was a bit fragmented, specially on Tuesday when I didn't have class in the morning, and many of the students in the afternoon didn't turn up because of the weather.

The school is on a bit of a hill and with it not being a main road either no one had come out to clear the snow, meaning that cars were finding it pretty difficult to get up and down there with the ice and snow which had landed on Monday. Due to this, the school decided it would be too dangerous to run busses on Tuesday when the snow had piled up, and only kids who live within walking distance of the school showed up.
In my morning class for the rest of the week I only had three students, the three boys, so I basically spent the few days I had with them making sure they hadn't forgotten all their English!

As the week went on I managed to slip back into the rhythm of teaching and in the end the break served me well in assisting me to make it through the first week. Now I just have to try dealing with a full week for the first time in a while....!

The weekend has been reasonably quiet for the three of us. There's snow still piled up on some of the roads, and because it's so damn cold there wasn't much danger of us heading out anywhere exciting this weekend as might not make it back and/or turn into ice cubes.
Instead it's been a quiet one which mostly involved recovering from actually having to do something for a full day during the week.

Unfortunately this means I don't have much exciting to write about, but I still wanted to blog anyway to let you know what little has been going on.
On saturday I did get some good news however which is that before I leave Korea in April I will be being visited by a couple of my friends, Luke and James, who I went to university with.

The pair of them had speculated about coming over a long time ago, but they finally booked their flights in light of my persuasion and will be spending a couple of weeks with me in the middle of February. Something I am very pleased about.

Today, I also did something for the first time in my life.....went to see the same movie for the second time! I commented a couple of weeks ago about how fabulous I thought 'Avatar' was and today I went to see it again with Charlie and some of his students as he had promised to take them to the movies before Christmas as an end of year treat but never got round to it. I have to admit that the movie, even though I knew what was going to happen, still amazed me the second time around, and I am still very much looking forward to seeing it in 3D or IMAX, if there's ever any seats available to go and see it that is.

I hope that all back home are taking care in the snow. I feel like I am missing out, until I step out my front door and realise that it's just as cold and just as miserable out there. Hopefully some warmer temperstures are on their way.....

Take care

Ben xxxx

Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
Jessamyn West