Snowing in Seoul

I woke up this morning to a phone call from Ruth, asking me if I'd looked outside. I peeled my drool encrusted cheek from my pillow, wiped my bleary eyes and crawled to my window and lo and behold, there was snow. Not just a little bit of snow, you know, that ankle biting stuff that England is hit with once every four years, but snow that you lose your boots in. Huge amounts of it. Everywhere.

Normally this occurrence would have filled me with joy and turned me into a child, running out and bombing into the middle of the hugest pile of the white flakes, but today heralded the return to work, after my short, but much needed, holiday. Instead, I dragged myself into the shower and trudged off to school, being knocked out of the way by about a million purposeful Asians. It took me longer than usual to get to school, seeing as the snow was up to my calves, but when I arrived I was very happy to see that I was on time (we have changed our schedule to 'winter intensive' which is actually, I'm pretty sure more 'intensive' for the teachers than the kids, giving the fuck load of extra work and extra hours). I dashed to the lift and met Swany, who told me that she had been travelling for the past hour and a half to get to work. When we reached our floor we found Adam, sitting alone in the teacher's room and nothing else. And that was pretty much how it stayed until about ten when the kids started rolling in, but still no sign of the teachers. In the end, Sarah turned up at 12.30, Amelie at 1 and Heidi at 2.15. Luckily, Sarah's insatiable work ethic meant that we kept on working and covering classes, even though a load of kids didn't show up and we had only 3 teachers for the majority of the day. Nevermind that half of my friend's schools were closed. Still, means that we don't have to work Sat, unlike most of them.

All in all, it seems that despite their protests in the summer, Korean's do shut down when it snows. Hmph, and here I was thinking that I'd come to a country that would laugh in the face of 12 feet of snow.

Winter in Korea

I am really enjoying winter in Korea. So much so that I'm almost happy with the -11 chill. I mean, it's been a good excuse for me to buy new clothes, so why the hell not? The most exciting addition to my new wardrobe, though not for anyone but me, is a very exciting wolf hat, which I purchased at Everland when we headed there for Catriona's birthday. On arrival at our destination (it may seem silly to go to a theme park in winter, but less queues. Stroke of geinus if you ask me.), it was actually rather warm, which possibly also had something to do with the excitement I felt at being at a theme park, so I decided to forgo my coat and leave it in the lockers. Which was smart. For a while. I got most of the way around the park, going on the T-train, (possibly the best rollercoaster that doesn't go upside down ever and the fastest/highest) and the Rolling X-Train, which was over in about 10 seconds and was less than exciting and the ghost shooting game thing, which Hugh maintains he was awesome at, but I know he was lying, and riding a camel, before I decided that it was really very, very cold. After going on the log flume, which strangely had the longest line, and deciding that I couldn't stand the cold anymore, I did what any smart girl would do and forwent getting my coat from the locker in order to buy said wolf hat, which is essentially a cuddly toy in the shape of a wolf, that you can put on your head and attach with ear flaps. Ok, so I get laughed at whenever I wear it, but it's damn warm and that's the depth of my argument. The rest of Everland was cool and the highlight of the whole day had to be Patrick's terrified face when on every single ride. He finally managed to lift a hand on the Viking, turning to me and saying, "I'm not scared, see, I was a mother f'ing marine!" Yeah, you go, Patrico!
Another fun thing to do in wintery Korea, save for going to theme parks, is snowboarding, which is by far my newest favourite hobby. Yes, I have decided that I'm a bit of a fadist (faDist), but I really do think that snowboarding may be here to stay. I have now, thankfully, mastered the art of righting myself when I fall over, which is a massive win, and am starting on the turns, though going backwards is proving a little tricky. So far I've only been to Jisan, the local resort, that I headed to for the music festival in the summer. It's pretty cool and there's some good slopes (from what I've been told, I'm no judge whatsoever), but it doesn't compare at all to Yangpyong, the resort that Amy, Mike, Ruth, Ben, Hugh, Seb and Dan are heading to for Christmas! Yey! That's right, Christmas at the place that only missed out on the 2012 winter Olympics by 4 votes. There's night sessions, cross country, about a million slopes and 'gondolas'. I've got no idea what gondolas are, but I'm excited by the prospect. Plus, I'm going to make me a Christmas snowman. And a snow angel. I risk getting taken out by a boarder, but what the hell, I'm having that white Christmas.

The Trouble with A.

The beginning of November heralded a new semester in Pals Lab, therefore new classes, new schedules and a fuck lot to do, doubled up with the stress of all the make-up classes now that the kids are coming back after the swine 'flu panic (laughing on the other side of my face now). One of my new classes is IN1E, with Dean, a brand new kid in bright blue Harry Potter glasses. I can't decide yet if Dean was born as the Korean style Damien, or if he's just playing up, I swing wildly between the two assumptions, depending on what he's like each lesson. Today, he wasn't too bad, except for the time he thought it was funny to play dead on the floor, and was still there, with me trying to haul him up as Sarah teacher walked past. Not impressed.
Dean's mother is somewhat of a complainer. In fact, Dean has been with the school for about 3 months now and she's called at least once a week to moan about something. This begs the question, 'why doesn't she just take him out of school?' The answer to this, dear reader, I can't tell you, I can only assume that she just really likes to complain.
Since I've taken over the class, she's got me into a ton of trouble by complaining that I didn't give the kids homework one class - a disastrous mix up that wasn't really my fault, but still, then not making him do the subsequent two handouts, and, more importantly has complained that I'm confusing her little angel by pronouncing things differently to how they're pronounced on his Triumphs (the book we use) tape. It seems that I'm not American enough for her, which now means that I'm not American enough for Sarah. Sarah's tried this one before with the kindies when Jessica's mum also asked why I was speaking with a strange accent - it's called British, you plum. I got one over on that cowbag by acquiring her other child and now they both have a lovely British pronunciation. Ha! In your face, ajumma! Still, this week I was called into Sarah's office again and reminded that when I teach phonics, I must don an American accent, so that I don't ruin the poor little ones minds. Now, not to pass the buck, but there's a perfectly good American colleague right down the hall, if you want an AMERICAN accent, why don't you use the damn American to teach phonics?! Today's lesson comprised of me vainly attempting to use said accent, I even got lessons from Adam on how to speak with a Yank drawl, but no, it didn't work and I just a) made myself laugh and b) confused the kids even more. It didn't help that Sarah came in to watch most of the class.
I have decided to stop trying with the stupid accent, I have enough of an American twinge anyway and add it to 'stupid things Sarah tells me' pile. For instance, 'you hole punch wrong when making monthly plans' as in, you don't crack out your ruler and spirit level every time you put a piece of paper in a file that will only be seen by you and your co-teacher, 'you can't sit down at all during class', and 'you don't write your 'f's' properly. This all coming from a woman that until last month I thought kept asking me to make the kids read 'frontly', not 'fluently', as she apparently meant. Don't get me wrong, as a woman, I like my boss, but man, has she got some nitpicky ideas.

Pepero Day!

11/11. A sombre occasion in the UK. A time for remembering the dead and maimed in wars all over the world and buying poppies to help those that gave their lives for us. Not so much in Korea, where Pepero is a national day dedicated to...chocolate covered biscuit sticks!!!! Yep, you heard me. Chocolate covered biscuit sticks!!!

Rumour has it that Pepero day was started in Korea by a few schoolgirls, who gave Pepero to each other in the hope that they would all grow as tall and thin as a Pepero. Whether they gave the knobbly ones to each other in the hope that they would become disfigured and bumpy remains unknown. When Lotte, the (ahem), Japanese company (anyone Korean who is reading this, I jest. Lotte are Korean, yes, Korean. It's ok. Don't worry), heard about this they decided to fully endorse the idea and make every 11/11 a special day dedicated to consuming as many sticks as you can, resulting in a kind of Valentine's celebration. The shops are filled with as many different kinds of Pepero as you can imagine, strawberry flavour, multicoloured sticks, massive boxes set into heart shapes for couples, Pepero in mugs, as Catriona got from Patrick. It's rather sickening really, in all senses of the word.

On the positive side, I got about a million boxes from my kids. Which was rather nice. I've still got quite a few in my cupboard too, though the tasty little morsels are pretty hard to put down once you've opened a packet. Most of my boxes were covered in declarations of love and devotion, which, although I truly appreciated, were ripped up to enable me to get a quicker sugar rush - I need it when at work, ok? Those little beggars are such a handful. This meaning though, that by the end of this so sacred of days, I felt rather sick and much in need of some savoury foods. Or at least food that doesn't contain a high quantity of melamine. Yummeh.

Hhhmmm, Halloween!

I love Halloween! It's awesome! I'm not quite sure why I love Halloween, seeing as I'm not American, but I do. When I was a kid I used to be the only one in our end of the village that celebrated it, I can still remember the twitch of the neighbours curtains as the fat child dressed in lycra was dragged up the drive to beg for candy. Still, when I got inside and gorged myself while watching scary movies, I was a very happy fat kid indeed.

This year, I was a bit stuck for what to wear. Inspiration hadn't struck and it was Thursday (as you'll remember one of the days I had off), which is barely heard of in my books. I decided, on a whim to go as quasimodo, as I had most of the outifit (tearing up a shirt, boots, trousers), so could do it on a skint girl's shoe string. Excellent. One disaster with face paint and some stamping on a shirt later and I was ready!

Seoul was Saturday night's destination. I was very excited by the subway, as I'd read online that Seoul decorated their subway cars with Halloween things and people went a bit mental. All I found were some very distainful 20 somethings who didn't enjoy a girl dressed as a hunchback cuddling up to them for a photo. Goodness knows why. We headed on to Itaewon as I wanted to give the Wolfhound a go, as their was a fancy dress competition. Soon as we got in we realised that this was not going to be an easy competition and also that the place was so packed it was hard to breathe properly. Good for me, as I was stooped low to the ground, but the others, not so much. The standard of costume in my favourite pie selling pub was great, however and I felt pretty humbled. There was Flight of the Conchords, ajummas, hippies, many Supermen, though one guy trumped the rest by showing off most of his body, much to female appreciation and other such weird, wonderful and thoughtful outfits. We left.

We wandered aimlessly for a while, taking in the array of bloody colours and then headed to the Bungalow, a lovely club down the streets behind the Hilton where Gecko's et al is. They play awesome music and there is sand on the floor to give the place a holiday vibe (though I'm not sure how this'll hold up in December...). We took our seats and the campest man I've ever met came up and asked Ruth and I if we'd like to be in the fancy dress competition. I said yes straight away, as did Ruth, though on seeing the women in suspenders that we'd be up against she donated her spot to Patrick 'ninja assassin' Kim.

The rounds consisted of questions about James Bond, costume originality (or somesuch) and a catwalk show. I managed to stay in character the whole night, which was rather hard, though fun, specially when I spotted Anda in the crowd and humped the camp man whilst doing my catwalk display. It came down to Batman and a bondgirl, Super Mario and me. The tension was high. I was already amazed I beaten the women wearing nought to at least 3rd place, so I was happy as, well, quasi. Batman and the girl got chucked and it was just me and Mario. I decided to lob his banana peels at him in one desperate final attempt to sway the judges, the crowd (luckily our group had all managed to get the front row) were going wild and then, he announced it! I was the bloody winner! 500,000won! I'll thank you very much! Needless to say, I went on to Jane's Groove with a massive smile, having paid off the money I'd borrowed to go out and danced the night away! Just goes to show that using stuff that cost nothing from your tiny enough wardrobe somehow works. Go figure! =o)

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.