Swine 'flu - only bad some of the time.

Because, thanks to the huge spread of the disease our hagwon is closed! Well, Thursday 'til Friday anyway. Or at least I get the time off, as Sarah messed up by signing a revised version of our contract and owed me two days off. Regardless, I've had the past two days off, which has been great, save for the fact I've got bronchitis and no money. Still, two days off! Whoo hoo! I've sat at home, relaxed, read, hung out at the pc bang with the kids and seen Amy, a nice relaxing time and something that was much needed, work was starting to make me foam at the mouth and claw at the walls.



I like the fact that I have time off for once, as the Korean attitude to work is to take no time off until you die, then you can relax, which for them is fine but I'll take my breaks now thanks, while I can do something with them. My boss obviously hired me as a western teacher (read, we take holidays) so shouldn't try to fleece us with 6 days off a year. Now I'm fine to go by most of the rules and regs around here, but a girl wants a break once in a while goddammit. Also, I've obviously come to Korea to check out the place, instead of just working here - I could work and not sight see in England, that's not what it's about. Sarah cornered me in her office the other day to tell me that she thinks I ought to stop going away at the weekend, as I'm obviously having too much fun. Too much fun? I've actually calmed down a lot since I've been here and I kind of resent that from her. I was once told by a coworker that Korean's order of priority (and obviously this isn't all Koreans, but listen), is 1)work 2)family 3)friends and that while I was here I should take that into account. What's the point of earning money if you're just going to sit on it and not go away? Or have fun with your family and friends? I feel sorry for the kids, they barely ever get a holiday and when they do it's a often just a weekend away on the east coast. When I think back to my fondest memories of childhood, it's generally going on holiday with the folks, even if Dad didn't really do much but sleep and drink and mum sunbathed topless, much to my mortification. Can't say I blame them though, they worked hard, why not rest and give yourself a pat on the back?

Anyway, I digress. Swine 'flu in Korea is tackled much like anything in Korea - with far too much over-enthusiasm. Children are being plucked out of school at a great rate of knots and the kids are being covered in swine 'flu masks, which they tend to where on an 'if I remember' basis and often are worn for about 20 percent of class time. Hand sanitiser is everywhere and ajummas walk around looking even more scared of westerners than usual, if that's possible. Even before the dreaded disease had hit over here, when John came to visit the Koreans were walking around making cross signs over their breasts and looking at him like he may grow a pig's head and infect them at any point. In fact, Sarah banned him from coming to our school, as it 'looked bad on us' and actually asked me to send him away for a week, you know, to Busan or something. I politely informed her that he was only here for a week and a half and therefore would be going nowhere, before bottling it and lying by telling her that I would send him to the other side of the country. She's also been really annoyed at me recently for not heading to the doctors to get my 'cold' checked out. Ok, so it's bronchitis and I should have been, but still. She even sat me down to tell me that I was now on my own in Korea so had to take responsibility for myself. Hmmm. Feeling like I'm definitely ready for a couple of days away from her!


So, although I find being grateful to a global pandemic a bit of a strange phenomenon, in this instance, swine 'flu (Sincheon 'flu as it's called here), I salute you. Now stop killing people, please.

Happy Chuseok to all and to all, a good train journey.

Yes! Finally it had arrived!!!! Chuseok (read, bank holiday)! Seeing as I'd been promised a million bank holidays in Korea and naively believed this without consulting a calendar, I've been pretty dismayed by the actual amount this year. In fact, Chuseok is only the second that I've had the pleasure to witness.

Chuseok (추석) is the Korean harvest festival/New Year celebration and is counted on the lunar calendar. It dates back to old Shamanistic times and is a festival to ask for a good harvest and worship ancestors. My kindy had a Chuseok party, which involved me dressing up in the traditional Korean outfit, a hanbok, which was fun, however the fact that I have breasts and the mojority of Korean women doesn't proved a slight problem in my hired outfit and lots of fussing from the Korean teachers. Never have I wished for tape more. Still, the kids looked cute and were generally well behaved. We all got into circles and danced a traditional Ganggangsullae dance. Following the dancing I was sent into a room and left there, staring warily at what looked like a hopscotch board taped to the floor. Turns out I was supposed to teach the children how to play this game , whilst being recorded for the school's dvd, though I had no bloody clue of the rules and no stone to throw to enable the kids to jump. Thank goodness for Rachel is all I can say. In other rooms were the traditional steel hoop thing, arrow thing and jump rope thing, all of which have Korean names that I forget.

One of the great things about Chuseok, apart from the holiday, is the gifts. Other friends got such items as 'choice cuts of ham', make up and shower gel, cookies, pears and grapes. What did I get? Seaweed wraps. A fuck lot of seaweed wraps. I could just see the glint in my director's eye as she presented me with my 'gift' as I ran out of the door Thursday night. I think my smile threw her off, but my insides were screaming "What the hell?!" Ideas of what I can use it for currently stand at, making a seaweed jacket and risking being attacked by seagulls, making seaweed underwear, using it to write letters on and using it as a cheap curtain material. Hmmm. I may just learn to make kimbab. I think that could be a better plan...

Anyway, the weekend rolled about and I greeted Thursday night, aka, the start of the weekend, with as much joy as I had, being slightly skewed by the fact I was rather hungover after a lovely night with the kindy teachers and drinks with the (now engaged!) Patrick and Elaine - watching over a very drunk Korean man with his tiny penis out, lolling on a bench after collapsing with his head in his own wee. Korean's sure know how to party. To be fair to the Korean emergency services, they did send 2 of each service out, though each member just stood and stared at the offending guy, whilst no doubt debating who would write up the paperwork.

I digress. So, Thursday night, I jumped in a taxi to Suwon Stn to meet with Frank, Catriona and newbies Ruth and Hugh. After a drink in Lao, a visit (again - I love it so!) to the virtual rollercoaster and a wander we headed to the station and jumped on the 11.40 train. There was a bit of a rush to get on the train, but Frank assured us that the platform we were heading to was the right one. Seeing as Chuseok is a family thing, most of the Koreans in, well Seoul, I think, jumped on the trains down south to get to their loved ones. Now I'm not sure if every Korean in Seoul's family lives in the South, but that's sure what it felt like seeing as the train was ridiculously packed. For the first 2 hours we could barely move, nevermind sit or breathe. Please observe...

Awesome. After a 4 hour train ride, we finally got off at our destination only to realise that we were in Gwangju (far South West) and the rest of the group were in Gyoungju (mid East). Oh dear. We decided to drink some more, a grand idea, and headed to the nearest minbak for a kip.

The next morning started off as a bit of a party with the locals, watching the Gwangju police band play and drunks get rowdy. We decided to head straight to Gyoungju, instead of taking breaks and hopped on the KTX - shock, horror, without paying our fares. We figured that we'd pretty much paid for the train to Gyoungju anyway, so why not. Turns out we were thwarted at every turn and 2 train journeys (with a random meeting with Danny at Daejeon train stn, I see that boy every time I least expect it!), two forced ticket fares (we pretended to be asleep - Frank had a tendency to open his eyes) and 6 hours later, finally arrived at our destination, feeling like we'd seen more of Korea than we needed to, but richer (well, poorer in the literal sense), for the experience.

That evening involved a loving union with Mallory, Joey dog, Amy and Anda, partying with some 'Russians' and attempts being made to con us into paying their w150,000 bar tab, a prison bar, icky food, a sperm hat and a tantrum, but an awesome night all the same. We headed to bed early, by Korean standards, at about 3 to eagerly await the arrival of the next morning. When it came, it brought with it lovely sun and a trip to Bulguksa temple and Seokguram, a UNESCO site temple that holds a grotto with arguably one of the most beautifully sculpted pieces of Buddhist art in the world. Frank took a picture, even though it was forbidden. I refuse to post it, but needless to say that the shot didn't do it justice at all, specially as he took it from under his arm. The site however is gorgeous and the temples too. I'll put some of my pictures up at some point soon. I am constantly in awe of temples over here. Despite some people saying once you've been to one, you've been to them all, I have to disagree and think that each one holds it's own particular beauty and style. For example, you can't compare this temple and Bulyeongsa in Uljin. Both are breathtaking, but for entirely different reasons, and I am glad I've had the chance to see them both.

After visiting the Expo '93 building, which was pretty impressive, we headed to Bonggil-ri beach, where legend has it the ashes of King Munmu are kept in a tomb off the shore. As is our luck, we got caught on a stretch of beach and had no idea how to cross to the inviting lights about 10 metres across from us, seeing as we had all our bags and Mallory's dog. Still, I had my thinking hat on, and Frank had his muscles and we came up with a plan to use a piece of wood nearby that was floating on some barrels, making our very own makeshift raft. We used a length of rope joining the two sides of the sea and Frank hauled us across one by one. Oh, the fun we had, and the crowd that gathered! We finally made it across to the other side, ended up having a pizza and beer party and let some fireworks off from the pier. All in all an excellent night with excellent people.

Sunday morning heralded a nice morning and we all had a bit of a swim on the beach (upsettingly it's getting too cold to do that now). The boys decided to swim to an island just off the shore, and when there had a wee as boys are wont to do. It was only when they returned and we went looking for the tomb of King Munmu, that we realised the rocks that the boys had swam to and, more importantly pissed on, were in fact the tomb and the remains of arguably Korea's greatest King. The rocks are strictly offlimits to all and scientists aren't even allowed there to check if the ashes are scattered there. Whoops doesn't quite cover it.

It was with red faces (well on the girl's part anyway), that we returned to Gyoungju, to hire bikes and cycle round some of the tombs, the National Museum and the Anjapi Pond. All are very beautiful indeed. Here are some more photos.