...MY first weekend in a while didn't quite live up to the schedule of the previous three with Aimie having gone home on monday but it was still some good time spent away from the classroom and the kind of relaxing time which we all need.As I mentioned Aimie went back to England on Monday after her three week 'holiday'. It was good to have her around and I was a bit sad on my first day back at work that my one reminder of England was heading back to my home country without me. Still I'm sure I can survive for the next six months and will be even more excited when the time comes around for me to go home.
I survived through the rest of the week to friday anyhow with no company other than Kevin and Charlie. Continued to feel like I was making a break through with the kindergarten kids which week, we were doing about sea creatures for five days and the ones who were paying attention were able to tell me all 25 that we'd learned about. I was very impressed.
On Thursday a new teacher at our school arrived in Korea. Zach, arrived in the evening to start his third stint at Talkster, having previously done two 18 month contracts. The last of those ending in February. Before I came here I actually emailed Zach and he was the one that told me about the school and what it had to offer.
It's been strange only having Charlie, Kevin and myself as the schools foreign representatives and it seems like a long time since Josh left. Now that we have four teachers again two of my classes have now changed. I've lost one altogether which I am a bit sad about because they were a really good class and I liked them. And the other one is one of Josh's classes which my boss was teaching and I have to teach them at 3pm on a Tuesday and Thursday.
Zach's arrival and a changing of classes means I am no longer working overtime but I'm only working 10 minutes less than the 30.5 hours which my contract states I am required to do. Both Kevin and Charlie had classes changed too so they are still working about 28 hours which is a bit more even than before.
Will be interesting to see what my new class is like at least and although I am gutted about giving my other one away, I will never say no to an extra hour off in the afternoon.
The three of us went out for dinner on friday night and then spent the rest of the evening playing on Charlie's PS3 and taking it easy after a couple of busy weeks.
On Saturday morning I got up after a nice lie in and some time spent sitting in bed watching a DVD. And then in the afternoon me and Kevin headed to what we later discovered was the last Bluewings game of the season. Charlie was going to come with us but was tempted instead into some shopping by Angeline so the two of us went off to the station to catch the bus, eating dinner first.
Catching the bus on the way to the stadium, I had to experience one of the less enjoyable sides of Korea. Rudeness.
Sitting on the bus some old lady got on and with everyone else around refusing to move, she decided to stand in front of me and make a 'get up' motion to me until I eventually gave in and let her have my seat.
As Kevin was sitting behind her I stood there talking to him and this lady obviously displeased that I had chose to stand there kept waving me away and telling me to move. She kept saying stuff to me in Korean and looking at me but thankfully the language forcefield prevented me from understanding her. The bus started to cram up and soon enough she got off the bus and we were able to ride the rest of the journey in peace.
We got to the stadium bang on 3pm so the game had already started by the time we got tickets. Whilst we were queuing up to get a seat some ticket touts tried to sell us some 'half price tickets' but when they are only 10,000 won (£5) anyway, I don't have a problem buying official ones!The game was a pretty entertaining one and the fact that it was watched in bright afternoon sunshine made it even better viewing. Suwon haven't had the best of seasons and I think their opponents have had a pretty solid season so when one of Suwon's defenders got sent off for elbowing one of the oppositions forwards it didn't look promising.
Amazingly the Bluewings scored in the second half with their lazy striker profiting from some abysmal defending (as he always seems to whenever we go and watch.) Chongu netted an equaliser thanks to some equally bad defending and with both sides pushing for a draw a bit of handbags broke out and two players were giving straight reds for their part. It was actually pretty entertaining as the offending defender was pushed by the striker, aimed a push back in his direction and then fell over as if he had been bodyslammed. Quite embarassing really.
The game ended 1-1 and after a long search me and Kevin finally got a cab back home and went back to our rooms to get some rest and wait for Charlie to come home.
About 7pm I got a call from the guys and we went down to the ogari at the bottom of our street to meet with Charlie, Angeline, Alex, Ian and Hans for a few drinks in a bar just down the road from where we live.
More importantly than anything I needed some food so me and Kevin were pretty happy when Hans ordered us some chicken wings and together we pretty much devoured a whole flock of them!
We decided to head to WA bar (It Bar as it is now) for a bit and we spent the rest of the night just talking and laughing which was alot of fun. I think it's been about a month or so since we last hung out with Hans our Korean friend but everytime I see him, its always entertaining.
It's a strange concept that someone like Hans goes out of his way to be nice, and even go as far as taking care of me, Charlie and Kevin but rude old ladies on the bus look for respect in exactly the opposite way by being rude. I think it just shows what a contrast there is between attitudes surrounding foreigners in Korea.
I was pretty tired waking up this morning as yet again we had a 12pm kick off with Inter Suwon at GSIS that I had to get up for. I swear one weekend, as much as I am not a fan of doing nothing, I am going to hibernate like a bear for the whole day!
We had a game today against a team called Butlers who were joint second with ourselves and who we had somehow managed to beat the last time we had played against them. They owed us one today because last season with a scratch team we stopped them from winning the league by drawing with them (the game my injury nightmare started.) Well today we certainly got our dues as we didnt really play too well and lost 3-0.
Everyone was pretty disappointed after the game but a strange attack on the field by about a million ladybirds after the game put a smile back on everyones faces. Honestly, it was so strange. We wear a white kit anyway but before taking it off, it was basically red and covered in the things.
I made my way back to Suwon via the bus in a bid to save some money and surprisingly it didn't take the 3 hours I was expecting. Back at the house I had a bath and in a desperate bid to find a cheap and simple Halloween costume for friday at school I went up to Suwon Station to see if there was anything up there. Sadly the AK Plaza wasn't too helpful as I didnt see a single item of Halloween parafinalia so I think I will have to try somewhere else tomorrow or possibly on wednesday.
For the rest of the evening I have just been on the computer and playing on my Wii as Charlie and Kevin weren't about. At the moment I am getting my usual Sunday dose of football on Korean TV and that's how the evening will end I suspect with Man U and Liverpool not due to finish until about 1am.
I know that everyone back in England probably enjoyed their extra hour in bed this morning but today I discovered that for some reason South Korea doesn't have daylight savings time. There was a vote in 2009 apparently and the government will impliment it from 2010 but for the time being there is a now a nine hour gap between myself and the UK.
That's about all for this week folks, not really much to report. It was quite a quiet one, hopefully the week will pass with little incident.
Take care
Ben xxxx
Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.
Vincent Van Gogh
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