And the winner of the most annoying thing about Korea competition is....

...Recycling! There's nothing better than a blog which starts with a rant about something pointless! Now I have almost been in Korea three weeks so it's a bit early to start hating on things but i feel this has just cause. Don't get me wrong, I'm not in favour of ruining the planet by not recycling things that can clearly be reused, but does it really take seven bags that need to be sorted into the most meaningless catagories to do so!!

In Korea it does!

In England I though three bags for recycling was a bit much as as much hassle as it was to shred up paper and wash out cans and bottles that is nothing compared to the rigmarol of having to check a list each time I want to put something into the bin to see which category it belongs in. How much time do these people think I have on my hands? I can't even be bothered to go into the details about what goes in what bag (only cos I don't have the list in front of me) but it comes to something when you have to seperate things into several different piles, checking the list everytime you want to put something into the bin or even in the case of very special items like batteries, taking them into Talkster and letting them dispose of them. This is madness!
I got my first taste of Korean recycling today after deciding that I really needed to throw some of the milk bottles and fanta cans away that were laid waste near the bin.

The moral of the story is either, don't buy food in Korea unless you fancy spending about an hour sorting it, or do like I did and add your rubbish to other peoples piles and let them take the rap if it's in the wrong place. As you can see the picture at the top demonstrates what happens when three grown men attempt recycling, but I would like to point out that barely any of that stuff is mine, paticularily the beer and pizzas.

Anyway back in the real world, I decided to leave it a few days before I blogged as nothing much exciting happens during the week. I've kinda got used to all the stares now, the fact that it's dangerous to cross the road at zebra crossings and also that there are neon lights on basically every building (sorry to cut back to saving the planet but Korea if you are listening instead of sorting rubbish into piles how about you turn off some lights and save some energy!)
Today was the last of a four day week in the land of Talkster which was a relief to us all, the last few days have been pretty good though as far as school goes. The kids have been behaving well and I think they are starting to understand what I expect of them.
The last couple of days in kindergarten we have been making things which is always fun. Yesterday we made jigsaws and today we made a bingo board and I managed to successfully teach them a new game. If they remember nothing else this year, at least they will have that!

The last couple of evenings after school I have spent getting in some much needed exercise. Haji pointed me towards a Suwon memorial park a couple of days ago and yesterday I took some time out to run around the lake in the park near by. Today I spent about an our shooting baskets at a school just down the road from where I work. I am excited about going to the zoo tomorrow and was sharing the story with all of my kids in their classes today. I'm amazed at how many of them haven't been and even more shocked at how many don't know which animals they could even find at the zoo, frightening!

Me and Kevin also made a new friend today which was pretty pleasing. After dinner at Ocha's we headed to Baskin' Robbins for a spot of ice cream. I've had a sore throat in the last couple of days and decided something cooling was just what I needed. We have spoken to the guy who works in there before to see how much English he knows but today we discovered that he's actually pretty damn good! His name is Hans (as in Solo!) and aside from being the assistant manager he learnt all the English he knows from watching films and listening to music. He said he knew a little bit of English and then began a half an hour conversation with me and Kevin! If he knows a 'little' English I would like to know a 'little' Korean as I would be able to do a lot more!
Turns out our new friend is a massive football fan and promised to take us to a Suwon Bluewings game which is something I wanted to do while I was here!

So far in my time here I have been impressed about how friendly the Korean people are. They might shun you on the street occasionally or stare at you like you have a bad zit on your face but the ones that have actually spoken to me, including the kids have been very friendly. They seem very interested to learn about the western world, paticularily music and sport. I think even in this three weeks I am beginning to learn new skills and also finding things out about myself that I didn't know. I am very much enjoying working abroad and I think it was a good decision I made to come to Korea. As far as only options go, this wasn't a bad one to choose!

Anyway, time for me to hit the hey. Night x

Back to the grind and going solo...

If you thought my tales of exploring yesterday we brave just wait till you discover what I managed to to with myself today!!!! And yes that is the said star craft channel at the top of the screen!

Had a fun monday back at Talkster today, we made dice in kindergarten class as numbers are the theme this week, they seemed to enjoy it and i finally got to demonstrate some of my artistic skills to some kids who might actually think they are half decent. My other classes this afternoon were good too and by the time it came to 6pm I was ready to do some exploring.

I needed to hear to E-Mart to see if they sold hard drives but first decided to go for a walk towards Hwaesong to see if there were any electronic type shops heading in that direction. I couldn't see any...but what I found was much cooler anyway.
Turns out that I stumbled upon a side entrance to Hwaesong fortress and also a part of the city walls which was pretty cool (hopefully I've remembered to attach to pictures at the bottom of the page. A brisk walk turned into a serious mission as I headed up the road towards Suwon station and decided to see if I could direct a Korean cab driver to the nearest E-Mart using my less than basic Korean!

I managed to end up in the right place which is a bonus, and as it turns out it isn't actually that far away from where I live. The ride cost me about 3000 won which is about £1.50. I told you it was cheap here!
After Charlie and Kevin had finished work we headed to a galbi place which is at the bottom of our street and to the right. The women working in there were laughing at our foreign-ness from the moment we walked in there to when we left, infact one woman who was cooking out meat for us, did practically everything except chew the meat for us which was very kind, even though we actually did know what we were doing.

We then decided to head to Baskin' Robins which is rapidly becoming a favourite of mine. We all know how much I love ice cream and when you don't get it very often and it tastes good it's an absolute treat. Today I decided to go with cookies and cream flavour which was absolutely amazing. They had taken away the fudge one I got last time and replaced it rather disappointly with 'green tea', I'm sure that's probably a big Korean seller. They did have some other random flavour which was blue, red and white but I'm sure that was loaded with ridiculous amounts of sugar! I'm trying to be all healthy with my food so I don't think that would have gone down very well.

Aside from exciting exploring this evening I got some other good news today which is that Talkster is closed on friday for Korean 'Mayday'. Most of the teachers were delighted to discover that the not they had been giving out to their students written in Korean could be roughly translated into the fact that we have the day off because it's the first of May. I hear a rumour we also have next Tuesday off as well but I think we have a teachers meeting tomorrow so I will find out then.

Well I think it's about time to sign off for the night and head to bed. Feel free to check out the pics and video which I have posted below.

Night x

Money doesn't make the world go round....

...but it helps when your bank card decides it wants to work abroad!

After trying in vain to make my card work in Yungsan yesterday I decided to venture to an ATM this morning and see if it had been activated for use. Luckily there was a cash point at Hwaeseo station and thank the Lord that it decided that it was going to work! The meer fact that I am not likely to starve to death through lack of finances inspired me to be brave with my exploring this afternoon!

Even though it was pretty cold outside I decided that I needed to get some exercise after two weeks of nothing but walking and occasionally running upstairs and headed in the direction of sports shop (not that I knew where any were). I came across what I thought was one on the highstreet heading towards Pal-Dal mountain and sure enough I was able to buy a football there and then head across the road to buy a cheap pair of trainers to knock around in!
There is a park just near where I live that has two goals and also several basketball nets so I spent much of the afternoon shooting at both types of nets before deciding that was enough to make up for doing very little so far.

When I got back home Charlie was in and asked if I wanted to go throw the American football around with him so we went to the park just down the street from the station and really freeked some Korean people out by throwing the only American football in Korea around.
I decided to be brave this evening and cook myself a meal as Charlie and Kevin had both ordered Goobne chicken from down the street. With my new found riches I was actually able to get a whole bunch of stuff from Homeplus Express and decided to keep it simple by buying some pasta and some pasta sauce, not even I can screw that up! That's the first time that I have eaten pasta since being here (except the occasional noodle in stew) and it tasted good! I reckon that's one of the major things I have been missing from home!

I discovered yesterday that Korean television shows 3pm Premiership kick offs on an Asian version of ESPN so I spent most of last night watching the Chelsea West Ham game which was a bonus. It looked bright and sunny back in London. Over the last too days the weather has been pretty grey and miserable, yesterday it poured down and today the sun didn't shine once. I have noticed that the temperature tails off in the evening too and it's probably about as warm as it is in England. It's supposed to be hot tomorrow but naturally I will be stuck in a classroom and not notice.
After work I'll be doing my best to head to either E-Mart or Suwon station to see if I can find myself a portable hard drive and some dvds. Mine is getting rather full and I really need to take some stuff off it to stop my computer from being so slow!

Time to sign off and get back to planning tomorrows lessons. Enjoy the last of the weekend!

Photo Gallery

My photo gallery is now officially updated, the website is: http://smallsyskoreanadventure.shutterfly.com/

Head over there to check out all of my pictures.

My First Two Weeks...

Here are a few things I have learnt whilst in Korea so far....

1. Korean's love to stare at 'foreigners', the best way to counter this is either to stare back or more comically say 'do I have something on my face!?' They'll soon turn their visor covered faces away.

2. The food here isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. My minimal research into Korean food led me to believe that I might spend a year eating Burger King, Mc D's and KFC. At the point of writing I have yet to resort to any of the above.

3. No matter how many times you tell the kids the correct way to form a sentence, the next day they'll say the same thing again. Whilst doing the register we have to ask the kids how they are and recieve responses like... "I am happy today because after Talkster play computer games", even after you write the correct sentence structure on the board, the following day you are likely to recieve a response of "Today me sad rain". Yes that's right, you are sad because it is raining today!

4. The competetive streak in Korean's young and old runs deep. The old ones will try and shove you off the train, steal your seat on a bus and aren't afraid to invade your personal space! The young ones will rush their work and then say 'Me one, me won' to which they will then hear me say "Am I first?!" or even more likely 'Me finish, me finish". "I have finished" It's not that hard is it!

5. Patience pays off. I have been wanting to travel and see the world for a few years now but haven't had the oppertunity to do so until now. Although it's rough leaving my friends behind, computers might just be the best invention of all time. Not only can I try and keep track of what is going on back home but I can also keep in touch with the people I left behind!

Making a New Friend

It's that time of the week again that everyone loves to enjoy...The weekend!

My second week of teaching in Korea is up and at the moment I am loving every second of it. First thing I had to deal with on Friday morning however was one of the kindergarteners parents coming to see how the school's new English teacher is perfoming! Considering she couldn't speak a word of English I'm not sure what she expected to learn! Having taught the kids for two weeks and having no training or barely been shown what to do I would have given it at least a month before I can start to work out what kind of things work and don't work in the classroom!

In my afternoon lessons I was in the mood for some more laid back approach as I can imagine that after a week of going to two schools five days a week the kids are tired so we did a few different things, I played Uno with all three of the classes which they seemed to enjoy and a couple of them I also did a worksheet with song lyrics from some music and the objective was to listen to the song and then try and fill in the words.
I read on an ESL website that it helps the kids pick up more vocab and they seemed to like not having to go through the book so I guess that was a bonus for them. They found it easier than their regular work too.

With work out of the way I spent a couple of hours trying to get the hot water in my room to work as the thermostat was being very tempremental. I'm glad I got someone to come look at it for me because the weather seems to have taken a turn for the worse today and yesterday as well! We also added a new English speaker to our small circle of friends (I guess now there's four or us it's a square actually!) Kevin had been in touch with a girl from Ireland called Marie who has been in Korea for two weeks and is working at a school with her as the only native speaker! She is lovely and like the rest of us very much enjoying her time in the country, I'm sure she's pretty glad to have made some new friends.

We introduced her to the pleasures of galbi at Ocha's and then headed to NOW! bar for a few drinks. Had a pretty entertaining night playing pool, darts and just chatting. Charlie posted a new world record high score on cut throat cricket on the electronic darts machine clocking in at 790 (the idea is to be as close to zero as possible). He did win the second game to his credit but then I stepped up and somehow managed to end the game by scoring zero after 16 rounds. Beginners luck I think considering I still don't really understand the rules of the game!

We decided to head home at about 3pm this week though Charlie didn't have to drop any Korean on the taxi driver this week! There was the usual hysterics in the back of the cab and even before we'd got in at Charlie decided he was going to try and drive by opening the cab drivers door and then climb in his seat. The guy just sat there motionless, probably very confused about what was going on. He then had a 30 minute rant about cheating as we dropped Marie off and then another 10 minute rant on the same subject as we made out way back to H-A-SO O-GA- R-RI!

Today we met up with our new friend and fourth muskateer again and headed to Yungsan to try and find the $150 PS3 deal that Charlie had heard about from someone. I went with the intention of buying a new hard drive but when I discovered that my card didn't want to work on an ATM i decided to sack that idea off. We got some lunch in a coffee shop and then headed to the electronics district and to a place called Techworld (I only discovered that when I went on the net as that wasn't originally where we planned to go). This place was literally six floors of computers, laptops, ipods and cameras, the same stuff again and again. We stopped on one of the floors which sells computer games but we dissapointed to find out that PS3's, Wii's and 360's were all their regular prices and probably weren't that great-a-deal after all!

We decided to take a walk up inside another electronics mall which was inside Yungsan station and quickly found that there were really just more ipods, more mobile phonees, more cameras and more laptops. Deciding to head up to the top floor however we got a tremendous shock, we followed the signs to a place called the 'e-sports stadium'. I figured that it might be some kind of arcade or something but then discovered it was something way more geeky.
Flicking through Korean television channels the other day I disvoved that there are two channels dedicated to the PC online game starcraft. Now I find playing video games fun, watching other people play them isn't quite as good, and spending time watching people playing them on the TV is not my idea of fun but apparently in Korea it's a big thing.

As it turns out, on the top floor of Yungsang Station is the TV studio for one of these channels! We walked into a crowd of easily 300 people watching two kids battle it out on an fantasy RPG game based in space!!!!! Not only were the kids given entrance like wrestlers of boxers, they take their gaming very seriously in Korea and apparently these kids play in a nation, yes nation, Starcraft league where teams of ten battle to become the champions. Silliest of all in this mocked up TV studio there were three guys in the middle giving the play-by-play about what was going on! I spent the next 15 minutes trying to work out what was going on and also laughing so hard about how I always thought I was a geek but compared to these kids, my video gaming habits are pretty regular!

After the excitement of people cheering, screaming and clapping at virtual violence and things being blown up on screen we decided to head back to Suwon for some normality (and dinner). The subway back was crowded as ever and I spent an hour holding on for dear life as you get pushed from pillar to post as Korean's try to fight their way on and off the train! It really was a relief when we got back to the station!
We found a restaurant just across from the station and had Pud-ah-jigeh (that's probably spelt horribly wrong!) which is basically like Korean stew with noodles, rice noodles, tofu and meat all mixed together! It doesn't sound very nice I know but when it's all mixed up together it is actually delicious!

We decided to retire back to Talkster after this for some R+R before another productive day doing very little tomorrow!

A New Home

Didn't have a lot of time to post a message yesterday but I thought I would today as I have finally moved into my 'new room'. Whatever construction and running repairs the school were doing has been completed so I have finally been able to unpack my bag which might start to help me settle in a little better and not just feel like I am on holiday.

I spent most of the evening yesterday unpacking and moving stuff around. As you might expect, the room isn't exactly spacious but it has a full size bathroom with tub and also a wardrobe and a computer desk which the other one never had. I also have a TV now which is cool as I discovered that they show English films quite often on there and also sports so I can keep up with the NBA and if I decide to get up at a ridiculous time, the Premiership!

I've had a decent two days of teaching too. I set a test for my 3pm class which they did reasonably on and as its friday and I'm feeling in a good mood I'm going to try something different tomorrow and we are going to play some games and I'm going to play them some music and let them try and fill in worksheets with some of the lyrics missing. Kevin told me he tried it with one of his classes and they were quite into it so we'll see how that goes down.

We went back to the sushi place for a second time this evening and it was really lovely as the original time we stumbled upon it. Even more excitingly, when I got back I had my first cup of tea in a week and a half! It tasted great, even if I did have to boil water on the hob instead of in a kettle!

I'm not sure what we are doing this weekend but as usual the plan for tomorrow is to head to Ocha's for dinner and then head to NOW! bar for a few drinks in foreign company. Kevin has been in touch with another person from Suwon who is going to meet up with us for dinner and then head with us to NOW. Hopefully Charlie will decide to drop some Korean again on the driver this week! On Saturday we might head to the electronics district again in Seoul, hopefully this time it will be open.
I'm planning to go get a ball this weekend as well so I can actually do some exercise next week! I may even take a walk or get the bus to the Suwon 'Big Bird' World Cup stadium which is about twenty minutes away. Even though I'm sure the standard will be about as good as the Leaper Hare League I'd love to go watch a game there. Until I get paid and have some money I reckon that might be a bit of a pipe dream though!

Time to get planning tomorrows lessons I think, haven't got much else interesting to blog about. I've attached a few more pictures to this post of last Saturday's trip to Namyung and also of the state of my new room.

Oh, also my photo gallery is in the middle of construction. If you want to take a look at some early images (and ones I don't post in my blog). Click here to see the Korean world through my eyes!x

Into Week Two

Not much going on in the last two days but I figured I'd better get some practice blogging and filling time until something exciting happens!

Started off my second week of teaching on Monday with some enthusiasm. This week I am teaching the Kindergarteners about emotions (not that they know what the word means, they are more interested in just drawing smiley faces!) We drew some pictures in class today demonstrating different feelings and I think they enjoyed it. It's amazing the amount of ideas I am coming up with despite having no real guidence on how to teach them at all. A few of the brighter ones understand but the whole idea of learning is completely lost on most of them.

My other classes are going well two, I have now learnt all the kids names that I teach (aren't I clever!) and they all seem to be enjoying what I am trying to teach them. Mum if your reading this don't get any ideas about signing me up as a teacher in England, I think I'll stick with the journalism for now but that doesn't mean I'm not enjoying myself. I'm going to try and take some pictures of my classes and put them on my blog so you can see how small and cute they are.

I'm planning to start learning the Korean alphabet on my lunchbreak tomorrow, I read a bit about it this afternoon. It's basically built of vowels, consenents and sylables, sounds easy eh?! Well apparently it's not supposed to be as complicated as Japanese or Chinese but having fully mastered chopsticks to this point I figure it's time to move onto the next challenge!

We ate at a lovely restaurant a bit further down the main road where we live yesterday, we had a started of several meats on kebab sticks with some noodle soup which was lovely. Realising we were outsiders the guy also brought us some freshly made french fries and then we had a seafood platter. It was absolutely lovely (except for the evil octopus which has been planted in there to freak me out! See below)


I also decided to take a picture of some rank food they sold in HomePlus. We once spotted that some of the market vendors in Suwon sell Silkworm. For those who don't know imagine a cockroach without wings. (Think 'The Bug' from Men in Black, his main course basically) I heard a rumour they sold them in cans too and yesterday I discovered that for 950Won (about 45p) you can buy a can and they are drained in oil. When I come back, you'd better be careful not to annoy me as I will be bringing some back for an unsuspecting person to eat!



It rained all of yesterday and has been rather cold today which is a little dissapointing considering the weather at the weekend. I've tried to set up a forecaster on this webpage so you see the temperature in Suwon but whether it is working or not I don't know. It stayed dry today and hopefully at the weekend it will be nice weather too.
Haji told me that my flat should be cleaned and ready now but I didn't get the keys back so I can't move my stuff over there. Hopefully it will be done by tomorrow or Thursday so that I can at least unpack my bag and not feel like I am holiday any more. I'll take some pics when I do.
Me and Charlie are planning to make a living room between out two rooms and if he can find a reasonable priced PS3 then we are going to set that up in there too. Should be pretty cool and fill in many of the moments between class when I am wondering what I can do with myself. At the moment it isn't too bad actually as I have my DS and am reading the Damned United. Also with my self-taught Korean lessons I have plenty to do!

Sorry it's not been very interesting folks, but even during an adventure you have to deal with the 5 out of 10 excitement days. I've probably seen about a million new things every day that I have been in Korea but even after just eight days I am starting to feel more and more at home.

Weekend Round Up

Well that's one week down I guess. Only 51 to go hey!! Seriously though, I have immensely enjoyed my first week in Korea. The amount of things I have learnt in just 7 days is just ridiculous and I already have some good memories to look back on. Good thing I started this blog so people can share them with me too.

Friday night was extremely enjoyable and entertaining. It was good to be surrounded by a few more English speaking voices. Most of them were American's but it sounded like there were a few English people mixed in too. I got chatting to a couple of people and me, Charlie and Kevin had a good time playing some pool, throwing some darts and relaxing from the stresses of ESL teaching (not that there is many!)

We ill-advisedly decided to leave at about 4am when we realised we had to be up rather early on Saturday morning. Charlie decided he was going to take the bull by the horns in ordering us a cab back to Hwaeseo informing us that he was going to 'drop his Korean' on the cab drivers. That and his other antics of telling the guy about his life and trying to get him to play some English music had me and Kevin in stitches in the back. As if roads in Korea aren't dangerous enough without people running red lights, this guy also had a tv in his cab which Charlie was doing some commentary on. All funny stuff when you start being a little delirious at that time of the night!

Anna came to meet us at 10.30am so we could go and see some traditional Korean martial arts just outside Hwaeseong fortress. The martial arts themselves were very interesting and the fortress, well wow, it sure is an amazing piece of architecture. We got to walk through the fortress which usually costs and see some of the culture about the king who used to live there. We ventured a bit further into Hwaeseong and Anna took us for a traditional Korean meal which is basically rice with spam, hot dog sausages, bacon and noodles. It doesn't sound that nice from a description but it was one of my favourite meals in my first week here, very filling as well.

We took the bus back to Hwaeseo and along the way Charlie found a sports shop which he figures is the only place in Korea that sells American footballs. They seemed to have quite a bit in there so I think I need to get myself either a soccer ball or a basketball that i can use to get some exercise with.
After a little siesta back at Talkster we set off towards Yongsan which is where the electronics district in Seoul is. I got my first experience of the Korean subway which although it is as packed as the tube is a lot more effecient and certainly much nice. We decided to get some food there figuring that we could just find the electonics district after we'd eaten but sadly they decided to close the whole area down at 8.30pm. Must be some kind of wierd Korean tradition to close things at the prime shopping time.

We had only stopped there to break up the journey between Seoul and Hongdae where we were going to see a couple of our fellow teachers and watch the band they play in. Well after we had spent about an hour and a half walking wrong a place called Hwrangdae (notice the similar spelling but similar pronunciation) we decided to call a cab to take us to the right place! I don't do directions well in England so it's no surprise that we had our first confusing experience of Korea's transport system.
An hour later when we finally arrive in Hongdae we were just on time to see Josh and Michelle play. I haven't been to see much live music in my time but it was an enjoyable experience. Josh's drumming skills were top class and Michelle made steal drum playing look easy.

We experience another entertaining cab ride back with a blatently unlicensed cab driver who looked nothing like the i.d. which was stuck in the taxi. Charlie's quip of the evening was to respond to the taxi drivers question of 'English teacher?' to us by reponding and point back at him and saying 'English teacher!?' The guy was clearly confused but I must remember to start videoing these conversations as the last two exchanges between driver and passenger have been hilarious.

Sunday being a day of rest and all, I figured I was due a lie in this morning. We didn't get home from HowWrongDae until 3am so I think that was justified. I decided to test how much I had really learnt today by braving a walk to Suwon station. I managed to make it there in one piece, and even if jeans and a hoody wasn't completely appropriate attire for the 60F temperatures I was feeling pretty proud of myself! I walked around the mall for a little bit, rather predictably there were four Baskin' Robbins, a KFC, a Burger King and a Starbucks there; a couple of department stores too but I decided not to explore too much and save myself some money. I did what I went there to do which was prove that I could do directions in Korea!

Getting home was a different matter....

After ending up on a completely different side of the subway station it took me at least 30 minutes to find where I was actually supposed to be going. Once I was back on my way it was plain sailing though.
In the afternoon I decided to see what Kevin was up to and he and I walked around a park which is over the opposite side of the railway between Hwaeseo and Suwon. It was a beautiful day for a walk and it was pretty busy. There was a couple of basketball courts, some of these outdoor gym exercise machines which the Korean's seem to be big into and all of this surrounding a damned off lake which we walked all the way round. It was good to get in some good exercise and obviously learn a new area of Suwon. Hopefully this week I'll be able to find myself a basketball or a football so that I can make use of the courts and pitches which were there.

Despite having lunch in the mall I was feeling pretty peckish and decided to order my first taste of goobnee chicken. Boy was it good! Enough to save for some other meal during the week as well. 15,000 won well spent. Kevin went back to his room to play poker so me and Charlie decided to watch 'The Kingdom' which Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner which was pretty good.
Obviously didn't have my shreded wheat this morning as hunger was calling yet again! A quick trip to 'Ocha's for a number two on the menu (also known as bacon strips) solved that problem.

I tried to start some planning for Kindergarten class tomorrow but got distracted by the internet so I will have to get up and do that in the morning. My mum also started talking to me on Skype so any kind of work went completely out of the window! I'm sure I'll wish I hadn't decided not to do anything in the morning when it comes to getting up!

Time for bed me thinks, well maybe a bit of Match of the Day then bed!

Night x

...and then there were distractions!

Sorry for the lack of updates people! What can I say, my first six days in Korea has been eventful and I guess I didn't have time to fill in all the key details but from now on I promise to stick to the task and update every day (of or at least until I can't get to a computer)

As it's now Friday I guess that I can officially say that I have been a teacher for one whole week now and I have really enjoyed it. I still haven't moved into my proper flat yet but I am still enjoying the space of the 'couples' room.
Things have been going so quickly this week that I haven't really had time to reflect on the experience but at the moment I am loving every second of my time in Korea. Obviously it's been difficult to move away from home and things but from what it seems I am surrounded by some great people and living in a fantastic and interesting country which has plenty for me to see and do.

Right now what I've got to do is get myself ready for a Friday meal at 'Ocha's and then we are heading to NOW! bar which is apparently where we will be surrounded by other 'foreigners' in Korea.

Sounds good to me!

The beginning of my adventure

After a horrendous night's sleep, I managed to drag myself out of bed at about 9am to go view some lessons at Talkster. Not only do I have no idea that day it is, I think my body is badly jetlagged but also not tired at the same time (yeah, I'm well aware that makes no sense!)

Kindergarten, which I will be teaching classes in starts at 10 am which isn't such a bad thing. I can deal with not having to get up to early and not having to travel way away from where I am living to work! The kids in kindergarten are so cute, to say that they don't speak English very well they make a lot of noise though.
They get to 'kiddy university' as it's known at 10am and if there life isn't enjoyable enough without having to deal with things like moving countries and settling in they spend most of the morning playing. The kids love Uno despite not really knowing the rules properley they can make a game last a good 30 minutes!

Charlied guided me through some of the things he has been teaching them and also what their previous teacher Tom had been doing. The kids warmed to be pretty quickly actually and within about an hour they were hanging off my arms and legs, I did try and tell them I wasn't a tree but I guess even that gets lost in translation. After a lunch with the wee 'uns of what looks like chicken nuggets we had some time to ourselves before starting back at 12.50 for an hour. Most of the afternoon is spent dancing and watching videos so this class certainly seems like something I can deal with.

The afternoon was a little bit different as I have classes at 3pm, 4pm and 5pm. As with most ESL classes the kids are only subjected to 50 minutes of English at once and although I didn't do much actual teaching in any of them today I got a fair idea about what they are learning. It's going to be strange to be left in a classroom by myself, with a bunch of kids that don't speak my language or understand the English accent. If that wasn't daunting enough I actually have to teach them things too!

We tried to go to a Middle Eastern restaurant for tea this evening but it was closed for some reason so we ended up going for some galbi somewhere else. Apparently Charlie and Kevin went in there before and were wowing them with their English, they seemed to be bringing us plenty of food which is always good. I'm impressed by the so far cheap Korean prices of eating out. I only brought about £150 with me in cash and at this rate it will hopefully last for a few weeks. One of the primary missions of coming to Korea was so that I could save some money and on the food side of things it looks like I will be doing that!

Oh well, I guess it's time to sign off for the night and prepare for my first day of teaching in the morning.

Ways to keep in touch...

Hey folks, just a small side note to say that this blog is one of many ways that you can keep in touch with me on my travels.

Either post me a message on this blog or send an email to my address which is benjsmall_0014@hotmail.com. Feel free to add me on MSN Messenger or Facebook as well.
I also have just set up Skype so if anyone has that my user id is benjsmall_0014. Just because I'm a million miles away doesn't mean I have to lose touch with the people I know and care about. I'm trying my best to keep up with the BBC website and things that are going on at home so please please please keep in touch if you are reading things!

Ben x

Day One and I'm already behind!

Whoops! It didn't take very long for me to get out of sync with this blog did it!

Well after the exhausting experience of arriving in Korea today I had a little time to get myself settled before heading out for a meal with Haji, the headteacher of Talkster. He also provided me with a guided tour and good conversation on the way back from Incheon Airport.
It's one of two airports in Korea but is apparently a man-made island which in a few years is set to be the hub of everything in the country. It's pretty close to Seoul so I guess it makes sense for it to be a popular place.

We actually drove through a small part of Seoul on our way back from the airport. Haji pointed out a couple of areas which are American military places but I can't for the life of me remember what they are called. I'm told the culture is a bit more western there so when I am sick of Korea I will probably spend a day there so remind me of home and what I am missing back in England.

I'm staying in a temporary appartment at the moment as the wall between my room and the next one needs sound proofing but this one is a little bigger. It's the 'couples' appartment and is very much like the kind of room you'd expect in a villa in Spain or something. Aside from the bed it has a good sized bathroom, a wardrobe, fridge, oven and all sorts. It's pretty much what I was expecting really and hopefully I'll be having such a fun time doing other things that I don't have to resort to spending much time in it!

After all this (and being completely confused about what time-zone I am in, how much sleep I've had and what day it is!) it's time for my first Korean meal. We visited a small restaurant just down the road from where I am living and had a traditional meal of Galbi It's basically like a BBQ in the middle of your table cooking all kinds of meats which you eat with salad and all kinds of spicy, and at this point strange side dishes! I also tried a Korean drink Soju (I get the feeling I'm going to be doing this wiki links regularily!) which apparently they go nuts for over here.

Right as we ordered two of the schools other teachers, Kevin and Charlie, came and joined us for a meal. It was nice to meet some of my new colleagues right away and it was very cool to get to know two new people so soon as I arrived. They are both from the US so very friendly and also entertaining. After the meal they took me to one of the bars they visited when they first got here.

I got my first experience of a Korean bus which was extremely novel and that took us into the centre of Suwon. The bar we went to was so cool, you had to take off your shoes at the door and then go into this room which was dimly lit with candles and sit on cusions on the floor. It was so relaxing and would probably go down very well as a place to chill and relax in England.
Charlie and Kevin told me about their experiences of Korea so far and I am excited to learn everything they have done while they have been here.

It has been a long day so I figure it's time that I retired to my room for the evening.

Finally...

Well finally I made it to Korea. The eight hours on the plane breezed by as I slept most of the way. This leg of my journey was slightly more spaciously enjoyed thanks to a bigger plane and the fact that there was barely anyone one it. Does no one want to go to Korea in April? Oh well. Despite setting off late the plane actually got in early which has given me a good chance to update this thing.

Entertainment on the plane was minimal, had my second round of chicken for the day and then watched Marley and Me which was surprisingly good. Is that even out in the cinema yet? There wasn't much else on and I was totally confused about time time as my watch is set to Korean time, my phone is set to American time and this clock is set to English time. Maybe I should ask Mr Wolf, he always seems to know what time it is.

On the plane I woke up to the blinding sight of the sun above the clouds and also discovered that the rain which we had left had then turned into ice.

Looks like my lift to Suwon is here. Will update when i get the computer set up at 'home'.

Istanbul pit-stop

Well I made the first part of the journey look easy enough. Turkish Airways and their 23kg weight limit helped me make ot to Istanbul, not that I'll get to see very much of the city itself out of the airport window. I'm impressed they actually have free internet. Perhaps I should come back on day!

We've only just begun...

...and already the problems have started!

Come to Korea they said? Good pay, free accomodation and an experience I thought.

It won't be so bad I guessed, I'll be able to take plenty of stuff to keep me occupied. Or maybe not.

TWENTY THREE KILOGRAMS! WHAAAAAAAT!

Has anyone from these airlines ever weight 23kg? Do they know that my suitacase already weighs five without anything in? Do they care?! Obviously not.

OK so after what was going quite well, out come the vacumn packs, out come the clothes and out comes anything which might actually be any use to me while i'm away. The Wii still managed to make the cut though. I figured it's not even the heaviest thing so it doesn't need to be ditched.

Shampoo, shower gel and shaving foam are already on a mental shopping list of things that had to be left behind. They can always be sent to me I guess but I'm not going into space. Just a country where nobody speaks English. Better take that Korean phrase book with me after all.

On to Heathrow we go....

Let's get it started....

Hello to all reading this! I'm about to set off on my hopefully exciting experience to South Korea. I'll be using this blog as a way of providing all my friends (and anyone else who is reading this) with the oppertunity to keep in touch with how things are going. Providing I keep it up for the whole year (and manage not to get side tracked!) I'm hoping it'll give a good insight into exactly what I've been doing, what I'm missing back at home and occasionally as a way of taking out my frustrations! Plus I have a horrendous memory and there's clearly no way I'll be able to recount anything.

Enjoy x