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

A Snowy Day in Suwon.....

....MARKING my final day of vacation before having return to the classroom tomorrow was one of the biggest hauls of snow which the city I live in has ever seen (according to the news and Hans who said it was 'By far the most snow he'd ever seen in Korea!)

I had planned to spend the day doing something but sit inside all day and once I looked out of my window this morning and saw that the streets, cars and houses in the surrounding area were covered with snow I had a perfect excuse to go out and take some pictures of the chaos which was taking place.

The last bout of snow we got, just before New Year was probably about 3 or 4cms and before that when we visited the folk village, we'd experienced a couple of inches. Today was closer to a foot of snow, and as I live on a hill you can imagine the kinds of fun people were having trying to walk or drive up it!

Heading away from the snow coverered cars on the street where we live it was evident that Korean's don't do a whole lot to make sure their roads are free of snow when it gets heavy as the vehicles travelling down the main road were having a tough time of getting anywhere it seemed.
I decided that the best place to view the snow would be on the walls of Hwaseong Fortress walls. I had wanted to go into Seoul but after seeing that cars couldn't make it down the road without wheelspinning, I'm not too sure I'd be comfortable on a subway train on snow coverered tracks!

Instead of walking the usual way to get to the wall I headed up another path which is shortcut to the top of the walls and obviously what I found was a hell of a lot of snow! Most of it was relatively untouched so it was quite difficult to see where steps were, and it was also quite difficult to keep my footing as I chose to wore the most ungripped pair of trainers on the planet!

I took a path to the top of the fortress and saw quite a few people out doing the same as me, taking pictures, and being just generally interested in how deep the snow was. Obviously there was the regular amount of kids on the street throwing snowballs and several of them trying to sled down hills, though of all the people I saw, I'm pretty sure that none of them posessed a physical sled!

I walked to the top of the fortress wall and took some decent pictures (though a little foggy) of the great view from the top before walking around another part of the wall to Namun which is about thirty minutes away from where I live on foot. The snow in and around that area of the wall was very much untouched and I think there may have been more than a foot in some parts which had been exposed to the snow all day.

By this point it was starting to great fairly cold so I took my trip in a circle walking back on the walls towards my house before heading home to get some much needed warmth. Not that I felt like I was missing out, but I have now probably experienced the same amount of snow as back home, though I feel that they are more used to such abrasive conditions here. I thought I'd post a few pictures on my blog so you could see how snowy it was but as ever if you want to look at the rest of them you can go here and see everything I've been up to.

As I mentiontioned back at work tomorrow so I will hopefully get some kind of rhythm back into typing my blog out on the weekend now that Christmas and New Year are over with. It's been a relaxing start to 2010 and I hope that remains the case on my first working day back at school.

Ben x
Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.
Elmer G Letterman

Vacation Almost Over.....

UNFORTUNATELY after a nice relaxing break, it's almost come round to the time when I am going to have to start teaching again.

We didn't manage to do anything near what we wanted to do during the time we had off (ie. skiing) but it's been good to be able to rest, have some lie ins and have some free time.
I have tomorrow off from work as well, and I hope to at least achieve something. There is snow forecast however.....

This weekend has been pretty quiet, yesterday afternoon we were invited round to Hans' house for dinner. His mum had cooked and prepared a huge meal for us which was extremely delicious and this followed friday night when Anna had her mom make us some chicken. Two home cooked meals in two days was very strange, especially after we've spent so much time eating at resturants or fast food outlets in the past few months.

Hans' mum cooked noodles, beef, vegetables and various other foods which I don't know the names of, and filled the table for the four of us to eat! Everything that she put down in front of us got eaten, needless to say, and it was extremely delicious! After looking through some old photos of Hans when he was in the Marine Corps we watched a very good Korean movie called 'Memories of Murder'.
It was based on a true story about several unsolved serial killings in the 1970's not far from Suwon. I often found it hard to watch movies with subtitles but now I've had plenty of practice so I enjoyed the movie like I really understood what each person was saying and what was going on!

After the movie we headed back home for the evening, only heading out into the cold to go and get some dinner at Kraze Burger later on. I spent most of the evening trying to keep track with the football back in England as there was non on TV this week.

Today has mostly involved doing very little. Me and Charlie went out for some lunch earlier on and then we called Kevin to go bowling as we felt like getting out of the house for a little while.
It's been a while since the last time we went (when my foot was still injured) so it made a change to be doing something different. After bowling we got some dinner and I think I plan to have an early night and then wake up at a reasonable time tomorrow and get out and go somewhere. I haven't got anything planned yet but hopefully the weather will be kind to me.

It's been a fun vactation, and although I am sad to see it coming to an end I feel like I am refreshed enough to get back in the classroom and teach again.

Take care

Ben x

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
Albert Einstein

HAPPY NEW YEAR

JUST a short post ahead of the weekend (and inevitably going back to work) to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

It was strange not being back at home surrounding by my friends over both New Year and Christmas but the three of us (Charlie, Kevin and myself) kept ourselves entertained whilst everyone back in our respective countries probably partied a little too hard!

I know most people are usually pleased to see the back of an old year, 2009 was actually a throughly enjoyable year for me. What is more frightening is that a whole ten years have passed between yesterday at midnight, and the celebrations which welcomed in the new millenium in 1999. Wow..... So many things have happened.

Of course I would never have been able to predict back then exactly where I would be today, and I'm pretty sure if you went back into the future and told yourself what you'd be doing, you'd probably greet your future self with alot of laughter....

Even though I had intentions to make a change at the beginning of last year, I would have never predicted that in the space of twelve months I would be living on the other side of the world.

I look forward such unpredictable (or a good nature) in 2010, and whether your like me, in being delighted with the way that 2009 worked out, or exactly the opposite, I wish you the best of luck for 2010!

Ben x

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.”
Bill Vaughn

Korean Folk Village....Winter Style

AFTER a brief hiatus to head back to work for one day (Monday) we were back into some much needed vacation time.

With Christmas behind us we now have the week off from work which covers us for New Year and means we don't have to be back until Tuesday next week. Unlike the summer vaction, we have decided to stay around Suwon for our time off so yesterday we decided to keep ourselves busy by heading to the Korean Folk Village which is located just south of Suwon.

When my mum and Aimie came to Korea they both visited the folk village for the afternoon to see what it was all about, but I'm pretty sure that my experiences will be totally different to theirs, thanks to the varying climate.
The snow which made it's way here on Sunday is still around and due to the cold weather the Folk Village had a few different things going on.

The Folk Village itself, to explain it's function, is basically like an outdoor museum. It has a section filled with Korea's take on world history, a small amusement park for kids and then it has an old fashioned Korean village set up where people live and work just as if they were still living life in old Korean times. It's filled with several old style houses, mock ups of farm and other such work places which are designed to give a feel of how far Korea has come since it's development into a first world country.

Not that I am an expert on such things, my Korean history is probably about as good as my English history, but their seemed to be an extremely authentic feel to the village with the people living and working there dressed in traditional clothes and not blessed with any of the modern facilities which Korean's are lucky enough to be blessed with today.

Before going there, thats what I thought the folk village was all about.... but it turns out it isn't!
We met Anna at Suwon Station at 11.10am so that we could catch the free shuttle bus from there to the village and after a twenty minute drive along some very unfamiliar roads we made it there. At the opening part of the village their are some old style Korean houses which you can look in and as you start going further in there are some interesting exhibits and also examples of Korean art.

Thanks to the fact that we all had drinks and food, we weren't able to head into the 'world heritage' folk part of the village so we instead went towards the amusement park to spend some time. Despite it being close to freezing outside we were determined to enjoy ourselves so we braved the cold to ride the pirate ship (not as scary as the Talkster Haloween one!) also also take a couple of rides on the bumper cars. Me and Charlie rode some ride which looked deceptively like a waltzer but after three minutes of spinning around forwards, and then the same amount of time going backwards, it was fair to say we'd had our fill of amusement park-ness for the time being.

We carried on through the sculpture park part of the village before arriving at the special winter 'Sledding Hill' which had been created thanks to the snow which had landed in Suwon earlier on in the week. Unwilling to get himself too cold and wet Charlie decided to sit sledding out but Kevin, Anna and I were eager to find out exactly how dry we could attempt to stay! After a couple of runs up and down the hill, it was fair to say that I had definately got enough snow down my trousers for one outing so we decided to move on.

Back the way we came through the amusement park we headed towards the village itself, but not before finding a lake which was nicely frozen over and which had been set up with several Korean games on there. These were the traditional 'spinning top' game (as seen at the palace I'd visited in the summer) as well as a rather novel take on ice skating which basically involved a couple of skate blades being attached to a piece of wood. The way to get yourself around was to use a pair or small pick-axe looking devices for leverage but as Charlie discovered, these didn't work too well in the thick snow which surrounded the frozen water.

After the lake started to get over crowded with excitable school children we headed to the actual village itself to look around. It was intereting to see what had been made out of the old houses but soon it became way too cold for us to be spending time standing still so we headed for warmer climbs in the form of a restaurant.

Following our dinner we hit a couple of souveneir shops where Charlie purchased some gifts and me and Kevin tried to avoid being hwranged into buying things by a rather pushy bunch of sales people.
We got the bus home at 4.30pm and headed back to our houses after an enjoyable day out. I'm glad that I was able to see the folk village in the winter, I think I probably would have enjoyed the experience in hotter temperatures but the fact that there was sledding set up and a Korean version of ice skating made the experience even more enjoyable.

There's a bunch of pictures like the ones on this blog on my photo gallery website and there's also some entertaining videos on photobucket of our attempts to ice skate and sled if you're interested in taking a look.

For the time being take care

Ben xxxx

“Positive or negative energy is exchanged like a fair trade, the more you give, the more you receive."

Master Jin

A Surreal South Korean Christmas.....

FIRSTLY, Merry Christmas to one and all reading the latest entry in my blog.

I hope that you all had a teriffic day yesterday, and although Christmas Day is over I'm sure there is plenty of celebrating left to be done as most people aren't poor unfortunate souls like me who have to head back to work on Monday!

I think I've mentioned once or twice about the difficulties of spending Christmas in Korea this year. I've never been a big one for celebrating Christmas my doing anything spectacular, partly because I have a small family and also because most of what little family I do have live on the opposite side of the world, or down at the other end of the country. Makes things kinda difficult.....

But this year I guess I am truely appreciative of what little celebrating we usually do as not only did it feel strange waking up on Christmas morning in an unfamiliar bed in my box of a room, but it also didn't truely feel like Christmas because back home in England it was still 1am in the morning!
My body decided that it didn't want to let me have too much of a lie in yesterday morning, so I spent most of it watching a DVD before getting a call from Charlie (who had headed to church in Seoul) to see if I wanted to meet up for lunch.

I was curious as to what exactly a typical South Korean Christmas Day was so heading outside I met by the seeming ordinaryness of just another working day for most people. I realise that about 25% of people in Korea are religious but my family isn't terribly religious yet they still observe Christmas a holiday and a time to be with your family. As mentioned previously, most Koreans don't seem to bothered about the whole thing and I discovered this when asking my kids what they had planned for Christmas Day.
Walking to the bus stop just up the road from my house I soon discovered that it wasn't infact Christmas Day, well not really, it was more like Friday December 25th, same as any ordinary day!

I had a theory that most of the small shops and stuff around me would be closed as they are run by families and perhaps some of the larger business might well be open for a short time. But as I discovered it was business as usual for just about EVERYTHING. Busses were running normally, there were plenty of taxis around to be able to catch and even the two convenience stores which bookend the top and bottom of the road where I live were open for business. It was bizzare.

I met Charlie in Suwon station which by this point was crammed with people, as it would be on any other friday, and we decided to head to a restaurant called Rebis. It's a glamorous looking place on the outside and we always see tons of people eating in there, so it turned out, we actually managed to pick something cheap of the menu and avoid it being ridiculously expensive, as we first feared.
I had a traditionally Christmas spaghetti bolognaise, whilst Charlie had a chicken and rice dish which is exactly what Jesus would have wanted us to eat on his birthday....

Out of the house and with very little to go back for the pair of us hung around the AK Plaza for a little while, spending sometime to see if there was anything on at the cinema before heading into the arcade downstairs. It's a really wierd situation as obviously back home I am used to everything being closed up but here it seems as if everyone in Suwon had come out of their house and headed to the shopping mall to spend the afternoon there doing one thing or another!

We headed home on the bus at about 2.30pm and Charlie decided to take a nap whilst I sat and watched TV and played on the computer for a bit (that seems to be the only thing in line with a 'western' Christmas Day) and then the three of us hug out in Charlie's room for the rest of the afternoon chatting and playing PS3 before it came time to get some dinner.

Going back to Suwon Station we decided to splash out on an expensive hamburger for dinner at Kraze Burger and even that place was unusually packed for a Friday evening. When we headed home I was actually able to get in touch with a few people from home which was nice and it made it feel a bit more like Christmas!
Hans came round to see us later on and the four of us played a couple of games of 'Yut Nori' or as Charlie refers to it 'Pick 'em Up Sticks' before it got a little late and I decided to get myself to bed.

All in all it was an extremely surreal Christmas Day and whilst it wasn't the most fun I have ever had on Decemeber 25th, it wasn't as depressing as I expected it to be. It's tough to be so far away from my family of course, but I survived and I'm sure that when I come back in April I can make up for missing out on things like that by catching up with all the people who I would have liked to have spent the actual day with.

Hope you all had an excellent one and I will report back soon on more Christmas activities! Merry Christmas

Ben x

“One of the nice things about Christmas is that you can make people forget the past with a present”
Anon

The Countdown to Christmas....

MORE in an effort to make it feel like Christmas and post a few of my pictures than a good reason to write a blog I thought I would post a quick message out to accomplish both goals!

This week was a shortened one at Talkster as with Friday being Christmas Day we only had four teaching days to go through before having the 25th off to celebrate Christmas. Throughout the week less and less kids have been in class with many of them either taking a holiday over the period of Christmas or going off to spend time with family in a different part of the country over the festive period.

Towards the end of the week, paticularily in my kindergarten classes I was teaching about Christmas and only then did it become apparent that quite alot of Korean's really don't celebrate at all. I know that around 25% of the country is religious in anyway but my family isn't paticularily relgious and we still celebrate Christmas, I guess it isn't really that way over here and upon recieving some very un-inventive responses from my kids when I posed questions about what presents they'd like or what they spend the day doing, it became quite obvious that they will probably just be spending the day doing very little like myself!

Seems like we didn't quite pull the trigger quick enough on wanting to go skiing, partly because the date of our break changed, but after getting Hans to search for us throughout the week, he came up empty with almost every ski resort in the entire country having no accomodation space for the three of us. C'est la vie anyway.

Today was the last day of school before Christmas so in the morning my kids had performed the singing and dance routienes that they had been practising for the last couple of months. I managed, with the help of some visual aids, to teach the kids to play 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' on a set of handbells so that was first to be performed, followed by a rendition of 'Jingle Bell's (the first verse of it anyway.)

The kids then did some dancing to show off their choreography skills (remember the story about the nightclub and how they like to dance in lines?) and the performed the two Christmassy numbers that are the 'Chicken Dance' and the 'YMCA'. Although not many of them are smiling in the pictures, the seemed to enjoy it. After this we sung Jingle Bells one more time to 'summon' Santa. And then each once of the kids got a present and their picture taken sitting on Santa Clause' knee.

After that we had some pictures taken, and I gave them some presents of my own and then they were allowed to go home as their parents were present. I had four classes yesterday afternoon and then I wish finished for the weekend and when Charlie and Kevin were done we headed to the usual galbi restaurant for a traditional Christmas dinner of 'Wan Galbi' and 'Mondu Dumplings'.

Charlie was getting up to head to church yesterday morning so we didn't stick around for too long and as none of us fancied going to the bar I spent the rest of the evening just watching dvds before my body decided it was time to sleep.

So I guess it's Christmas Day tomorrow..... Seems very surreal indead. I don't think there's any snow planned for Korea, but that's about the only thing that would make it seem Christmassy in anyway at all.

Anyway, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and I will be documenting exactly what I get up to tomorrow so you can hear exactly how Christmas is for 'Koreans'!

Enjoy

Ben

“Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.”

Oren Arnold

Bargin Shopping in Bulk, Some Time Spent on Pandora and Korean's Prove That Basketball Isn't Really Their Thing.....

....WITH just a couple of days to go before the start of our Christmas vacation, what better way to spend the last weekend before the holidays with a fun packed weekend!

That's what we figured anyway, and after two or three weekends of not really having much to write about, suddenley I have way more to document than I am likely to remember.

I've been enjoying the scenes from back home as for the second year in a row, snow appears to be causing complete chaos in England. Last year was kinda understandable as it hadn't snowed in a long time, but should 5 inches of snow really make the whole country grind to a shuddering hault?

I find it pretty typical that after missing out on the hottest summer on record since the 1940's, I am now missing out on the snowy times back home and what looks set to be the first white Christmas in a long time.
Over in Korea I am having my own issues with the weather, as even a trip to the shop at the corner of my street less than 100m away requires a coat to be worn! Since Tuesday there has been a horrible icy wind blowing in and I'm pretty impressed that aside from a brief flurry yesterday evening, it's hardly snowed a bit.

Deciding to give 'late friday night, early saturday morning' a miss this week, I decided to sit the usual visit to the bar for free french fries and tortilla chips out this week and stay in to watch a DVD instead. Turned out to be a wise idea as I watched the very entertaining 'The Hangover' and enjoyed every second of it before getting some much needed sleep!

On saturday waiting for Charlie, who did go to the bar, to get up, I decided to try and make a bit of progress with the ski trip that we are hoping to make next week, sadly to little avail. Despite being advetised as having an 'English speaking service' the two places I called up didn't speak a word of the lingo so I was left to contemplate the fact that Christmas might actually be spent in my room on Friday (not a prospect I am looking forward to if it comes down to it)

Once Charlie was up we decided to make a trip to Costco in Seoul as both he and Kevin wanted to get some food, and me eager to get out of the house, thought I would go along for the ride. Once we worked out exactly where Costco in Seoul was we caught the train there and then began wondering around the surrounding area to see if it would pop up out of the landscape without too much trouble. Sadly, as is so often with stories about our trips out, it didn't quite work out like that and asking four or five different people from directions was about as useful as a chocolate tea kettle when it became apparent that all of them were pointing us in different directions, and not a single one seemed to know the actual location.

In the end we decided to bite the bullet and get a cab there. As it turned out, four of the five had pointed us in the wrong direction, and even the fifth person had got us taking a ridiculously long route to what turned out to be a five minute journey. Once Charlie had signed up for a membership card, we were good to go and immediately started browsing round the ridiculously unecessary bulk items which were for sale.
The boys made a few purchases and we managed to find a big box to shove them all in so as to be able to carry them back home. For some reason it appears that Costco is the only supermarket in the world that doesn't provide carrier bags....I guess they are not expecting people without a car to be shopping there.

We headed back towards the station to get he train back home and once we'd got back to Suwon we took a rest for a while, Charlie and Kevin unpacked their shopping and then we went back towards Suwon station as we had booked tickets to see Avatar at the cinema that evening.

After seeing a few previous for Avatar and hearing that it was supposed to be one of the 'greatest' films every made, I was extremely sceptical. How often do we hear about great films and they turn out to not live up to the hype after all. I knew very little about the film itself and after discovering that it was three hours long I was thinking that we were in for a repeat of Transformers 2, which we had had our fingers burned by earlier on this year!

Thankfully after sitting through all three hours of Avatar I can say that it definately lived up to the hype and it was actually a phenominal film. I'm not going to spoil it by saying anything too much but visually the film was spectacular and the story (as far fetched as it was) had us engrosed to the point that not once did I look at my watch wondering how long was left.

We got out of the movie at 1.10am (or 25.10 as the movie theater had on their ticket) and managed to find a cab to take us back home for some much needed rest.
On Sunday morning I went on a mission to look for a new hard drive for the computer. This little trip took me in the direction of Yongsan in Seoul after discovering that most of the shops near us were charging inflated prices which I didn't fancy paying.

We'd also agreed to meet with Hans this afternoon to go watch a basketball game so whilst the three of them headed from Suwon to Jamsil (where the game was) by bus. I braved a 45 minute journey on the subway to meet that to go and get some dinner before the game. Despite intial fears that I might not make it on time, I got to Jamsil just in time, and we made our way to the game.

It was being held in the same place what we went to see the NBA Generations team play back in September so we were in a familiar location at least. Today however we were watching some domestic basketball action which was taking place between Seoul Samseong Thunders and LG Cheneon Sakers.
I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned before about the necessity in Korean's sport for sponsors to play a major role in the name of the team. More often than not, the teams are referred to by who they are sponsored by not the place name where they are from.
This causes all kinds of confusion and often means that teams from different areas of the country become rivals simply because the companies they are sponsored by are in similar markets.

So today turned out to be a derby between two teams at opposite ends of the country, just because they are sponsored by the two Korean based electronics firms!

I think over the last couple of months I have probably been spoiled by basketball action as though the game was entertaining, I feel that with a few more inches in height, I could have done a decent job out there! Each Korean team has two foreign imports and unfortunately for the team from Seoul, there's happened to be two liabilities who were probably the least effective players in the game.

The team they were playing were actually pretty decent. And it helped that they had a guy playing centre who was 7'1 and being guarded by someone that was maybe 6'4. They ran up the score a little bit in the end but Seoul still ended up losing by seven points.

After the game we got the bus back to Suwon which took about an hour, and was a million times better than catching the subway. The four of us ate dinner together at a 'Budehgigeh' restaurant at the far side of the main strip of restaurants opposite Suwon station and I'm not sure if it was because it was at a different location than usual, or just because I hadn't had it in a while, but it seemed more delicious than ever. I certainly needed it after the day spent travelling backwards and forwards!

It's been a fun weekend overall, and I am thankful that we only have a short work week before Christmas. My kids are probably needing as much of a break from me as I am from them so hopefully the week will breeze by and we can get around to 'celebrating' Christmas (That is, when I accept that time is travelling so fast that it's finally here!)

I'm going to leave a rather longer than usual blog there for now, but I hope that everyones Christmas preparations are going well.

Take care

Ben x

"Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything."
Muhammed Ali

Christmas Creeps Up, Getting 'Breaked' and Dinner With Some Friends....

.... AS the title of my blog suggests, the preparations for Christmas are fully underway.

Not in my own life of course, but in the world of Talkster and all things English teaching. Last week I was tasked with 'preparing' my kids for their annual Christmas Party which takes place on the 24th December, their last day of school for the holidays.

Thankfully, unlike school back in England, there's to be no nativity play (I probably haven't got enough kids to accomplish that anyway) but I do have to teach my kids how to play Twinkle, Twinkle and sing a Christmas carol. Twinkle Twinkle is to be played on the bells, with each of the kids having a different note.
Throughout the week we have been practising maybe four or five times a day, and aside from the occasional lapse in concentration when one kid is slightly slow with their ringing, the kids have actually managed to do very well.
I taught them to sing Jingle Bells as the Christmas carol to sing (well the first part of it at least) and aside from a few mix ups with the words they have also impressed me with their ability to catch on straight away.

There's nearly two weeks left before they have to stand in front of their parents and carry out the singing, dancing and playing so I'm sure in between teaching them about Christmas this week, we will be practising to make sure it is ingraned into their skulls.

The wintery weather continues to engulf Suwon with some milder temperatures during the day meaning that you are completely caught off guard when you go outside and night and realise it is absolutely freezing. Most definetely gloves weather, and quite often a hat an a scarf are needed too.

Well aside from teaching my kids about the wonders of Christmas traditions the week has gone by realtively quickly. After finishing on friday I spent the evening writing Christmas cards which I had brought throughout the week and not find time to finish. And once Charlie and Kevin had finished it was time for some galbi, and then a spell in IT Bar once Hans had finished work and could join up with us.

We didn't make it a late one this week and instead headed back to Charlie's for some Yut Nori and some PS3. Amazingly at Yut Nori, I managed to pull out another victory but when it came round to playing for money Hans stepped up his game and beat us!

Saturday was a pretty quiet one the three of us met up around lunchtime and headed out for some lunch early on in the afternoon. I spent most of the rest of the day just playing on my computer and catching up with friends with emails. We went out for dinner in the evening, but kept it pretty quiet with all of us feeling pretty tired.

Today, with no football game for me thanks to the ending of Inter Suwon's season last week was largely spent in the same way, at least in the morning anyway. In the afternoon we headed to the 'PC Bang' which is basically an Internet Cafe as we were meeting up with one of Charlie's students for a much anticipated battle between 'teacher and student' at Starcraft.

Now for those people who aren't in the know (or basically don't live in Korea) Starcraft is the video game-come-national sport in Korea which I would say that basically every single one of my students spends an hour an evening playing. The objective (and yes it really is as nerdy as it sounds) is to build up a fleet of ships and then destroy all the others who are playing and hope that they don't destroy you in the process.

Koreans LOVE this game....you may remember the picture I have of the 'Starcraft' channel on TV. That's how seriously they take it.
Unwise as it may seem, Charlie has been running with a story to one of his students for the last two months now that he is a Starcraft expert and he has been making up lies to this kid in his class to the point where the boy, Kevin, called him out and told him he wanted to play to see how good he was!

Well this afternoon we met the reluctant Kevin at the PC Bang just around the corner from where we live. It didn't take long before this kid figured out that he wasn't much good to be honest and I think the first game was over in about seven minutes. Three minutes slower than Kevin promised to 'break' Charlie in but all the same a comprehensive victory.
By this point, Kevin and I were pretty intregued about joining in so the three of us signed in and tried to help Charlie.
Sadly, neither of us were able to offer much help as Kevin (student) managed to blow all of us up inside ten minutes! Raucus laughter followed as Charlie admitted that he didn't actually have a clue how to play and had been making it up all along.....

After the PC Bang, the three of us headed up to Yeongtong to try and play screen golf, but the place was busy so we ended up coming back home.

Despite the season ending last week, some of my football team were getting together just near my house so I decided to join them for a meal, which was good, and that was pretty much the end of my weekend!

Another quiet one, but a step closer to Christmas and vacation at least! The plans are still underway to go skiing though I am still working on which resort we are going to visit at this moment. Hopefully I can make some headway on that this week....

Take care

Ben
“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”
Albert Einstein

A Late Night Date With South Africa and a Game of Korean 'Pick Up Sticks'.....

.....IT's extremely hard for me to believe that it is December already, but stepping outside of my door yesterday to see that snow was swirling around brought it home for me that we really are in the midst of winter.

It's a cliche I know to comment on how quickly time is passing, but to actually consider that it is seven months since I came here and that it's almost Christmas is a ridiculous thought.
I'm sure I've mentioned several times that being in Korea this year we'll be having an alternative anti-Christmas with the opposite of pretty much everything that goes on back in the western world (spending time with family, exchanging cards and presents, and eating lots traditional food) but all the same I am looking forward to what we get up to.

It's less than a month now until we'll be ushering in 2010 and the prospect of that too is very odd. A few of the site I go on to keep in touch with news from back home have been running '...... of the decade' competitions and a few times it's like, wow, it's actually a full decade since the year 2010. This is arguably the first decade that I have been able to remember the most of as the details of what happened between 1990 and 1999 are pretty sketchy in early parts due to my age.
It's nostaligic to think back where I was ten years ago and predicting that I am doing what I am doing at the moment probably would probably be met my extreme laughter if I was somehow able to back and tell myself. But I guess it just shows that with a few things falling into place (or not quite working out) the course of your life can be completely changed and you never know what might happen.

Enough amateur philosphy anyway, and speaking of 2010, Charlie, Kevin, Hans and I spent friday evening (well very early saturday morning actually) watching the draw for the 2010 World Cup. Due to the fact that despite it's name as the 'World Wide Web', the Internet isn't quite as World and Wide as it seems, I wasn't able to catch a feed on the BBC website but luckily it was on Korean TV so the four of us sat through and hour of festivities and braved tiredness to find out exactly what was going to happen.

I think after working in Korea for a year at an American school and having my two closest friends being from America, it was pretty much destiny that England were going to get the USA in the World Cup! Obviously there was some friendly banter between myself, Charlie and Kevin, but when they realised that the other two teams in our group were Slovenia and Algeria, they realised that the inevitable defeat to England in the first game won't be an issue!

Speaking to quite a few of my friends in the football team this (Sunday) afternoon a bunch of them are heading out there and were watching the draw with bated breathe to discover which games they would be able to go and see. A few of them got lucky with games like Brazil vs Portugal and Korea vs Argentina, some of them weren't so lucky and ended up with Nigeria vs Greece!

After work on Friday we finally got the courage (and also convinced Anna) to take us to one of the restaurants they have in Korea where they have fish tanks outside (we presume these fish are for eating, but it has never been confirmed!) Before I came to Korea, sushi was about as far as I'd go but we actually had a go at just eating the raw fish by itself. There were massive amounts of food on the table and believe it or not we actually managed to go through and eat them all.

Unfortunately included on the table in the side dishes was some 'bundegi' or silkworm. The food which haunts my nightmares! Kevin was presuaded to eat one after a few drinks and confirmed that it tasted as bad as it smelt!

We'd spent most of the evening in IT Bar on friday night and after staying up late I was pretty nakered on saturday morning so spent the early part of the day in bed watching basketball on Korean TV.

It was Charlie's birthday on Monday so we agreed to go out for a meal in Seoul with him this weekend at a destination of his choice. On Wednesday the three of us actually headed to TGI Fridays in Ingedong for a meal which was pretty delicious.
Charlie decided that he wanted to check out 'Hooters' which was in Yongsan and expecting it to be just like the ones back in the USA he was disappointed to discover that this one was actually in the backwater basement of the subway station, wasn't very big or very impressive. I'll say one thing though, the food was pretty descent!

We headed back to Suwon on the train and then eager to enjoy Hans' company for as long as possible we told him to come round to Charlie's place for a few games in the PS3.
We ordered some chicken and despite our initial skepticism we played a Korean game called 'Yut' which he brought from the shop and prepared whilst we finished eating.

Now, having worked around kids for seven months it's fair to say that I have seen my fair share of Korean games. The one which is popular at the moment with the kids (and may well be this year's Christmas gift) is very similar to the old victorian game 'Jacks' and involves throwing bits of plastic up in the air and catching them whilst trying to pick other ones up. It's as mundane as it sounds.....

This game however which Hans brought round was quite the opposite in terms of entertainment. I'm pretty sure that over the next few paragraphs whilst I try and explain exactly what happens you will be largely confused but rest assured I'll be bringing one back with me and showing you how it's done properley.

The game board is very much like that of the game 'Frustration'. Each player starts with four pieces and the idea is to get your pieces 'home'. The dots on the board that you can see on the picture above is the pieces direction of travel. You basically have to go round in a big square, but can take a short cut if you land on one of the 'buttons' at the top right, top left or in the middle.
Now, you might be asking, how exactly does one get from beginning to end. Well the answer is with the wooden blocks you might see lying on the floor in the picture. Each one has a 'flat' side and a round side. The flat side facing up is the number of moves that you are able to take with 1 (Do), 2 (Geh), 3 (Gol), 4 (Yut) and 5 (Mo) being the possibly options.
One of the sticks also has an 'x' on there and if you get this one then you have the oppertunity to go one space backwards.

If you land on the same space as anyone else then you get to knock them off the board and also take another turn for doing so. We were all probably thinking when the game started that 'This isn't going to be very difficult' but half an hour later when we were still engrosed in the game without a winner, we'd changed our opinions.
I'm not sure how, but the first time we played I won. Somehow, through a rule I'm not sure about I managed to pile three of my pieces on one another and ride them home then after everyone kept knocking my other piece of the board to stop me from winning about a million times I broke free and was able to finish the game off.

The second time we played Hans stopped giving us hints about what to do as he said we were 'too good' but unsurprisingly he won the second game as he was done making us look good. The two games lasted about an hour and a half which was surprising but we had a good laugh and thanked Hans for another traditional Korean experience.
I retired to my room to watch the second half of the football which was on TV and Hans came too as he was interested to see my room and compare it to Charlie's!
The two us chatted for about an hour or so before the game finished and he went home and I went to bed.

I have to say that there's alot of things I am going to miss about Korea, and Hans is definately one of them. The three of us sing his praises often for the way he goes out of his way to help us or give us experiences we would have struggled to organise by ourselves and it seems as though the more he helps, the happier he is which is just fine with me.

Charlie and Kevin are trying to convince him to go to the USA and visit them at some point in the near future and I will definately up for joining them if I have the chance!

Today was the last game of the season for Inter Suwon and the oppertunity to finish third for the second season in a row. After a bit of a dodgy start and giving the other side a couple of goal headstart we made our way back into the game and in the end thumped out local rivals 6-3 which was pleasing.

This evening I haven't been doing very much, just planning the work for the week and adding plenty of my photos and pictures to my facebook and photo gallery page.

It's been a quiet weekend and although we haven't ventured out very much it is certainly one that I will remember and look back on with fondness when I am back in England.

Take care

Ben x

“One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.”

K. G. Chesterton