...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
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