It's coming to an end

It's been a little while since my last post.  I keep meaning to throw on another, but since I can't aces this at work it keeps escaping me.

I have finally come to my last week.  Well next week will be the last actual week in the country, but I have only one working week remaining starting tomorrow.  Am I glad to be leaving?  Well I'm not going to lie, the simple answer is yes.  I believe I have finally reached the end of my tether.  It has not been one particular thing but many things compiling over the year.  Yet as I look back on my year I am glad of what I have accomplished here.  I have gained a year of experience in my chosen profession and I have done it through many difficulties.  I can only hope that the things I have had to go through this year will help me in the future as a pursue teaching.

So since I am coming to the end I am having goodbye stuff and preparing to leave.  I have been giving my house a thorough clean and getting rid of stuff that has no value.  I'm also throwing out anything that I don't think I'll wear or should really just go in the bin anyway, gota make my bag as light as possible so that I can take buy some new clothes in the U.S.

I had my first goodbye meal on Sunday, with one of my friends from Changwon, I don't see him too often, but we get along really well.  It was nothing big, just a meal and good conversation, just what I like.  Then last night I had a meal with the guys from my town and we went to a favourite resteraunt of ours in the town, run by Mr. Kim (a really interesting guy). One of the guys had brought along some blueberry vodka he had concoted, it was not good, but we shared it around.  In return Mr. Kim gave us some of his favourite alcohol 어량애 (Oh-ryang-eh) Well that's how it sounds, it should actually be in Chinese characters. It is a Chinese spirit.  The stuff is fantasic, really clear and it goes down really well.  But I don't think it is something that I'll get my hands on too oten because a bottle of it here in Korean costs ₩800,000 which is closing in on $710, which is about £450 (currently).


Tomorrow I will have a meal with some of the teachers at my school.  It will be an informal thing, so I think it should be alright.  I hope they don't expect me to drink a ton, because I still have to work the next day, although thankfully it will be the test day, so it's not exactly a difficult day, for any of us.  Which makes me think there may be a bit of drinking going on.  I am not sure who will be there, but I assume as it is supposed to be held for me, it will generally be people who actually want to talk/spend time with me...well, we'll see.


Then on Friday I am supposed to be going to a house party.  I have no idea how that will work out as Korean houses are pretty damn small. Also I am a bit of a tag along, but again I shall see.  Then after that I will just have a couple of days left before I'm off to the U.S.  So I guess I should just pack my bags and make sure all is dealt with and I have everything I want to keep.


Well that's how things lay.  I may write another blog before I leave.  Then at some time after I have left, I think I will write my parting thoughts.  Then, I guess I will close this blog and mayhaps move onto something else.

One Month remaining

Well now, I have been away from my blog for a little while.

I have finally reached a point in my life out here that I have simply become content. I have become used to the food and whether I am enjoying it or not I am not sure but it os certainly what I expect.  For instance finding octopus in my soup id no longer a problem, in fact I almost look forward to it.  It's not just the food though, I am becoming somewhat more accepting of the culture.  I think I would attribute this new found peace in Korea to the fact that I am soon to leave the country.  One of my friends sugested that i may have entered the third state.  The first being excitement of the new.  The second state, where you feel out of place. Finally the third is acceptance.  However the way emotions play out is quite that cut and dry.  There are many peaks and troughs in a person's time working abroad.  For most people in one year the would be a peal when one first arrives, which then tapers down into a trough at about the six month mark and then in the last couple of months you reach another peak, just in time for re-signing.  I found this was not really the case for myself.

I had a peak when I arrives, just like everyody else, however I troughed after my NZ experience and then I pretty much flatlined up until this last month. Not a great looking chart, but I have been able to survive the year and finally I am being able to enjoy my last month.  It's funny though.  I can feel the tug of staying here for longer. But I know that on whole I do not want to stay here for another year (consecutively at least).  I would in the future consider returning to Korea were I looking for work abroad again.  However, were I to come back to Korea, I would have to work in a city.

Outside of my feeling for the country as a whole I have been working as normal and I continue to enjoy my job.  I have been significantly enjoying my lessons with the 6th grade because I have seen the students become much more confident in the last year.  Both in their attempts to speak English but also as peoplke generally.  They are by far my favourite class to teach. 

This last week, I finally finished the game I have been playing with the 5th and 6th grade. Each day for the last 2 months I have been playing a 5 minute game at the start of each class.  The students were in two teams and they had to come up with as many words beginning with the letter of the day.  I promised the winning team some sort of prize.  This week we had the prizes.  The 5th grade did not put all that much effort into it, therefore they were only rewarded with a cookie each.  The 6th grade on the other hand had tried properly.  Therefore they were rewarded with a party: food and watching Dr. Who.  Next week we will get back to normal and I will speed up the lessons a little, just so that we are ahead of time.  I need to make sure that the students have a couple of lessons prior to their test to revise.  This will be the final test, for most of the school it has some inportance, but to the 6th graders it actually holds significant importance.  The result of this test could have ramifications upon which middle school they can attend. However due to the area in which the school is and the size of the school it is near certain that all of my students will go the same, local middle school regardless of their results.

Well that's about all there is for now.

School Trip - Ulsan Park

We went to Ulsan park today as a school.  I had reservations about it before I went, since the previous one was something of a flop, at least fr me.  This time however I had been told a wek or so ahead of time instead of 5 minutes before and I was able to bring the correct sort of gear and also pack myself some food.

The park was pretty huge, so much so that you can eother hire a bicycle or take the in park bus to get from A to B.  At first I went off on my own and discovered some nice grasy areas and I considered doing some Kung Fu there, but I wanted to see how the day would play out first so I went back to the teachers and kids.  The older kids had decided to go off and walk to the animal petting zoo and butterfly house, but the younger kids were waiting for the bus.  It's a good thing too, else I may have lost them, although, it was because of their shouting that I was able to find them, so perhaps it would not have been so difficult.

At the other end of the park we went into the butterfly house and although it was small it was nice and we followed that with a insect house.  Not so much my cup of tea, but interesting none the less.  Next we made our way to the 'zoo', but on the way decided to make a pit stop for lunch.

I had come vastly prepared and I had sanwhiches, boiled eggs, fruit, crisps and a drink.  I had also made a batch of cookies, which throughout the day, I shared with the kids and the other teachers.  I was to eat with the other teachers, which I was rather dreading, making the asumption that it would be yet another meal where I would be ignored. But I think since there were no authority figures it was somewhat more relaxed and I felt more at ease, even if little conversation was directed my way.  The other teachers had brought an array of Kimbap and other very Korean dishes and invited me to dig in.  Then Sey Bom arrived with his fiancee and lots of delicious food, some of which was cooked chicken (still hot).  In short, the food was good.  Plus I liked his fiancee, she was able to talk to me, since her English is pretty amazing,

Next the animals.  There were a couple of macaques and some various birds, mainly pheasants and chickens, nothing too strange.  There were also some donkeys, which were good, I like donkeys for some reason.  probably because they are always portrayed as the hard working animal, not asking much of anyone.

It was funny though because the teachers and kids were trying to feed the Donkeys with chopsticks, it was a rather fruitless attempt becuase they kept dropping stuff and it rolling away from the donkeys.  So I told them how you should feed them open palm, as I had seen my sister do when she had a horse at one point.  Scared the teacher asked me to show her, I'd never done it before myself, so I was a little dubious, but I thought, meh, why not.  It was alright, although the donkey ended up licking my hand.

We walked back down to around the butterfly house and most of the kids went off to play in the big playground, made up of climbing stuff and trampolines.  While I, Sey Bom and his fiancee and a couple of kids hired out some bikes and cycled around for about an hour.  That was great, that's the first time I have ridden a bike while I have been in Korea.  I really enjoyed it.

And then we headed back to school.  Plus we were then allowed to go home early. What a great day!

Food and Toilets, weird right?

So let's start with food shall we.

I have become a little fed up with my food situation.  Unfortunately living in a small town there is only a limited supply of resources.  So that can be rather trying since I like to make food myself.  There are some more advanced meals which I like to make, but they take a while to prepare and the ingredients can be pricy.  So that means on a daily basis I am left with what I can buy from the local shops and the market should I catch it when it comes through town (which can be difficult since it seems to follow no actual schedule).  Occasionally I am able to gather other ingredients from the cities, but that is a rarity.  Of course I can grab a meal from one of the many resteraunts in town, but the problem there is that, although there are many resteraunts, there is still not a lot of choice. 

Of course if I were Korean having very little choice about food would not bother me as it seems Koreans do not get gastronomically bored.  This may be because of the way they ar ebrought up...who knows.  It turns out the kids in my school have rice, kimchi and soup for breakfast, rice, kimchi and soup for lunch and can you guess?  Yes that's right rice, kimchi and soup for dinner.  One of my co-teachers tried to explain to me that outside of school most people do not have rice for lunch, instead they probably have noodles.  Which of course is SO different!  Well it seems to work for them, but it does not do much for my mental stability, which is wavering as it is.

TOILETS!!!

Now I have discussed this subject before, the lack of toilet paper and the bizarre squats.  However today I look at the total lack of privacy.  Most restrooms/public toilets in Korea seem to lack basic privacy.  Yes there are doors on the cublices, which is good.  However there is not much priority put on blocking the rest of the toilets from view.  For instance in my school, although there are doors to block the view of toilets they are never used.  People just leave the doors wide open, which frequently means that the guys are using the urinals while putting themselves on public display.  Now while there are doors that are not used the ones closest to my room are glass doors, with only the bottom half frosted, so anyone even slightly tall can see over.  So even when I should make any attempt to provide myself some privacy it is easily foiled.  Sometimes I even retreat to the downstairs toilets because students do not use them.  But the problem there is that Koreans must have the windows open at all times so, on the ground level the toilet windows are open putting everyone inside in full display once more.  To make matters even worse over by the door the mirrors have been set up over the sinks so that people outside can basically see in through the reflections.

The lack of privacy on toilets is not simply for schools, but with all public toilets that I have come across.  Even to the extent that in a bar we often frequent in Tongdosa has a unisex toilet and often women will just walk past you at the urinal to use the one stall.  It is very strange and rather off putting.  I generally avoid a lot of discomfort, at least at school by ducking into the cubicals, simply to escape overly curious students.

I remain an adamant suporter of the western toilets and the privacy that comes with it, even though westerners treat their toilet facilities worse on whole.

Open class and social life

Okay, first, I had an open class in Friday.  Which to anyone who has not worked in korea, an open class is basically an evaluation.  I am not entirely sure how important the outcome would be had I wanted to stay working in Korea.  I had chosen to throw my entire self into this lesson.  I wanted to teach the best I could, but I try to do that with every lesson anyway.  But I had no intention to do a bullshit lesson, like I have seen often in Korea, where they practise the lesson with their kids several times before they do it for the evaluation.

So it turns out I was to be evaluated by three random teachers who work in the locxal area at different school, not sure what that proves.  Yes they could give me some helpful criticism, but they would all have their own way of doing things as each teacher does...not sure what that was all about.  Anyway I had to hang around waiting to teach because the observers were late.  Then when I started I was a little flustered and got things a little messed up in order.  I pulled it back together though and as far as I am concerned I taught a fairly good lesson.  The kids seemed to like it and from what my co-teacher said, she liked it too.

However my observers were a little more reserved about it.  They did not care for my game and felt that I was not teaching certain activities in the proper way.  I listened to their comments and took some of it in.  However some of what they said was just theoretical bullshit that I have cast aside myself because in practise I attempt to tailor my lessons for my students and teach them in methods which work for them.  But I just let them give ne their comments rather than argue about it.

They then turned on my co-teacher and went to rip him apart for not having participated.  But as far as I am  concerned the 6th grade teacher does not need to speak English.  He more or less cannont speak English, or so it would seem.  But I can make the students understand me and he keeps them in line.  It works for us.

Anyway, I am glad that is out of the way.  I will keep some things in mind of what was said.  But I am leaving soon and the outcome will have no bearing upon my job.



Socialisation or lack there of.


I have spoken of this before, that I do not really have a social life here.  However it has now reached a point that I am becoming a recluse.  I no longer try.  A friend of mine seems to be disappointed by my attitude, but I have become quite comfortable with a solitary life and I should be fine till the end of my contract.  Now I am not saying that I want to live like this forever, rather that there is little that interests me now, here.  Normally I will meet up with him at the weekend for a chat and a meal.  That's great for me.  Plus given where I live going out and getting home have to be done with strict time limits otherwise I must pay for a room or a taxi, neither of which I really want to do most of the time.

Yesterday he wanted me to go clubbing in Busan and basically just stay up all night and then take the first bus home.  When I was in uni, sure maybe.  But I HATE clubbing and I really didn't want to lose a whole day and fuck up my sleeping habits.  Yeah, I know, not adventurous.  But, well, I just don't care anymore.

I will wait to re-ignite my social spirit once I am in the US.  I don't think I really have the energy anymore for it here.  Well that's it, catch you later.

Evaluation or no evaluation?

So I was supposed to have an evaluation or 'open class' today.  But of course that did not happen, because that's just how things always go here.  I have become pretty acustomed to it now.  Sure it's still a pain in the ass, but it seems the only way to survive working in Korea is to have absolutely no expectations, so whether its good or bad it's still not much of a suprise.

Therefore in theory I should be having my evaluation this coming week instead...but well, we'll see if that really happens.

I decided to do a bit of dieting.

While I have been in Korea, I have been putting on some weight.  It is most likely due both to my making my own food and the fact that I lead a rather dull and socially devoid life style.  Also, while I get some exercise here and there I am generally quite lazy after work.  So, although I am not entirely sure how much I currently weigh I know it's more than when I turned up.

In response then, I have decided to do a bit of dieting.  I assume it is starting to work because I'm pretty damn hungry.  But I have taken measures to stop myself not binging when I get hungry, by having nothing but healthy food in the house.  But over all I would say it sucks...

More stuff!

Well I haven't written anything in a little while, I thought I would throw up some random stuff.

This week I spoted a praying mantis wandering down the road one day after school.  They're pretty big.  I tried to get a photo of it, but they turned out pretty naff.

I think a mantis may be the only insect that I have actually attempted to get closer to look at.  Strangely it brightened up the end of one of my days.

On my birthday I got some little presents from some of my sixth graders. I can't remember if I already wrote about this. They are nothing really, but they were good since I did not get much else for my birthday.  I was really happy with them.

The stuffed animals from the sixth graders.

The tiny Mp3 player something I got myself.

For about a week I had the stuffed animals out on my desk, but then one day, after a really busy day, I realised they were gone.  I asked around and had my co-teacher ask the other teachers.  A couple of days later they were returned to me.  They had been stolen by the secind grade.  Their response had been they thought I had given them to them.  This is something I seem to face on a daily basis, if I put anything on my desk the kids seem to automatically assume it's for them.  Even though I tell them over and over that it's not theirs and they cannot have them...either they just don't learn or they feign ignorance to get more stuff.  I no longer display these gifts, for fear of theft once more.


This week I had a run in with a couple of my students.  I had been teaching a lesson to the sixth grade on my own as is often the case, so I was left to fend for myself infront of about 20 kids.  It's normally not an issue, but on this day, after the lesson I discovered that some of the kids had taken to tearing the stuffing out of one of the chairs.  I knew straight away who it was. but the lesson was over and I could not get a hold of them again that day.  I informed their teacher and awaited some retribution, but it was not forthcoming, I at least wanted them to come clean up. But again no sign, so in the end my second graders just decided to do it for me. The next day it was sorted and they were punished.  But I was pretty pissed off that day.  I wanted to see them punished there and then, to reinforce the behaviour was wrong.  But instead as ever it took a while to filter through the system in Korea and by the time they were held accountable the damage had mainly been swept away.

Finally.  I have my evaluation this week. I have not over prepared for it.  I have no intention of doing a fake lesson or doing a practise run.  I am not returning to teach again in Korea, so for me I am just going through the motions.  I am of course going to teach at my best, but I do that every time I teach.  I had prepared the lesson as I always did, but this time I was forced to submit it to my co-teacher and she made changes and wanted me to do certain things, but I was not so happy with the changes.  Yet to make my life easier I have no choice but to bend to her will.  I am to be marked by my co-teacher and 3 other teachers.  For me I will just do what is required and get on with it.  But I assume that the other teachers in the school will dress up and pretend like they are doing very important things elsewhere, so as not to come under scrutiny.

Oh yes, and I am currently applying for teaching qualifications in the UK, but it is a long, borign and irritating process.  Gah it is a must needs thing, but I wish it were just a bit easier.

Right, I'm off now.

Nationalism?

I had always thought of myself as a countrpoint nationalism.  However I am coming to realise that as I leave the UK I become more nationalistic, but not in the standard manner.  i habe no interest in sports or some such, I know how good England is at sport and will expect no more.  However as far as history, politics and social structures are concerned I think I put them on a pedestal when I go abroad.  I try to stay neutral, but I think nationalism has been ingrained into me to some degree.

It is weird watching the feelings well up in my and unccomfortable at the same time.  I see other people agressively defend their nation and it's actions and I find it odd or eronious.  And yet when it comes to my own country I have similar feelings, although not quite as viciously.  Fighting these feelings is something I attempt to do.  Don;t get me wrong I know was is good and bad about the UK, but it seems difficult to accept them if someone from elsewhere presents.them instead of myself.  I guess this is just one more thing to try and work on.  Else it is not fair for me to rag on another country if I won't let them do the same to my own country.

Good News Everybody

My new co-teacher is good, that's it.  She knows what she is doing, she can discipline the kids and her teaching style works with mine.

빨리

빨리 - Faster, hurry.  It's a word used so incredibly often in Korea.  Kids say it to each other all the time.  Adults say it to kids, adults say it to adults.  One would think they are always hurrying and at times that is the case.  It quickly becomes clear that Koreans have to do things quickly because they do them inefficiently.  Yet even as people tell each other to eat quickly, they will have meals together and spen 3-4 hours at the table.  There are so many bizarre contradictions, but it's just this word.  It comes up so freaking often it can get irritating.

Why?

The 'supermarket' that I shop at is just a minute or so away from my front door to the front of the shop.  I have written about this place before but I question it's existence sometimes but mostly those that work within.  The shop itself is much, much, much smaller than supermarket anybody in the UK or the US would shop at.  This place has a selection of things, yet it is almost like an illusion.  There seems to be a variety of things on things that nobody in their right mind would want or stuff that kids crave.  As for the rest of the food, the studd I use to make meals, there is little choice and that often causes me to wander around the shop for a while attempting to come up with a meal that may be a bit different.

Now, that's just the shop itself, but it is the staff and their habits that I do not understand.  The people that work at this shop, are for the most part in their middle ages, they will likely do this job for the rest of their life or until they retire.  They work as shelf stockers and cashiers, there is also a baker and his wife who work at this shop, a great couple.  There is also, however a young woman, just shortly out of school, she is fairly good looking and by all accounts she did fairly well at school, yet she works at this shop.  Now I am not trying to make a dig at their jobs, not at all.  It is rather their work hours, I do not know what they account to.  But the shop is open from 9am to 11pm every day and from what I can tell the staff work different shifts, but it would appear that they work every day. Plus the shop never seems to have an off day.  I am well aware that most places are open every day, but occasionally places will close for the major holidays.  Today was a major holiday: Chuseok.  I am told that most everywhere was closed in the big cities today, but even today the 'supermarket' was open and most people were working.  Now I can see that most of the people that work there will work for the rest of their lives in the Korean manner of work until you drop.  But I think it is the young girl that confuses me the most.  I had thought that perhaps she was saving up to make a step into something else.  However I am told that this does not realy happen in Korea.

If you do well in school you go to University, if you don't then you get a low paid job.  Plus vocational professions are not viewed highly and people in such professions are apparently not paid well and they lack security in their jobs.  Therefore I guess the young woman may stay in Tongdosa for the rest of her life, or else she will marry and then move away.  I would ask her...perhaps, if I could.  But without one another's language I guess I shall just be left wondering.

I guess it is just the way of things here.  From my observations and what I have learnt once you are done with high school you have one of three options, the company, university or a minimum wage job.  The last option is unlikely to lead you anywhere in this country, it would look like unless you work in a big place it is unlikely that a promotion will ever be in order.  If you take university you will have many more options at the end.  As for the company route, you either enter at the bottom or you go in at the management route.  The differnece with this route is that advancement appears to be possible within the companies.

Well I am certain that I do not understand the proper subtleties of the Korean work place.  Maybe I'll gain more of an insight of it in the next three months or, maybe not.  But either way it is just something that both interests me and also causes me to feel sympathy for those that will be stuck in jobs with no way to advance or move on.  Well that's it for now.  Perhaps more of my thoughts will spew out in the next couple of days while I have a little time off, especially since I am unable to get these thoughts out when I am at work now that my blogging site is banned by gyungnam province education board... weird.

3 Months left

It's currently a holiday in Korea, it's called 추석 Chuseok.  it's basically a harvest festival.  I however have found myself not doing anything really.  But I am going to socialise mildly with some of the people in my town and otherwise put it to good use through starting up the process for applying to the PGCE and the GTP (different teaching qualifications.

The weather has become, what I would regard as much nicer.  It's still reaching high temperatures at mid day mostly, but the start and end of the day are much cooler, which suits me perfectly.  it means I can go to sleep without my air-con on.  But I do get the feeling that soon my school will confiscate the use of the air-con in my clasroom and likely before it cools down properly during the day.

I have my open class coming up in a couple of weeks, which is basically a sort of evaluation. Most Koreans prepatre immensly for these things, which is funny, because they don't prepare at all for anything else.  But I have decided I will not be taking the super worry and preparation route.  I will just teach a normal lesson, of course I will prepare, but I always do.  I am not going over the top, A because I think it is bullshit and B because I am not returning for another year here so the evaluation will have little bearing on anything.

Gifts

Korean gifts are a bit weird...well the ones that are sold in all shops around holidays are anyway.  Each national holiday all the shops put together gift selections, so generally toiletries or food goods, doesn't sound too weird yet does it?  But the weird thing is what they put in them.  For instance generally the toiletaries are not things like bath salts or skin products or such, they are something like 6 tubes of toothpaste and two bottles of bog standard shampoo.  Or if you want to go down the food route you can get a box a various types of spam, or different cooking oils.  Added to the sheer disappointment anyone who recieves these must feel they are more expensive for the person buying them, than if they were to simply pick up all the same items off the shelf in bulk.  It makes no sense to me, monetarily or in any other sense.

가위 바위 보 - Rock, Paper, Scissors

This is something that people in the UK and the Western countries generally may play this occasiinally when they are kids or perhaps to settle something small, such as who goes first and what-not.  However in Korea it appears to be much more powerful.  Kids use it all the time here, if there's some sort of indecision it always comes down rock-paper-scissors.  The kids must use it at least 5 times every day if not many, many more times.  But it's not just them, the adults actually seem to use it and for more serious things than any body I know would.  They also re-inforce it's use in lessons, for instance I have had a lesson where one of my co-teachers has basically used rock, paper, scissors as a stand-alone game.  It was not even a game to do with the lesson, she just had the students play 가위 바위 보 to fill the time.

From the outside it may seem like nothing, but when you experience how often it is used, it just leaves you a little puzzled.

I went running!

I went running!  Me!  I have always been terrible at running, but I thought I'd give it another go recently because a friend of mine said that he looses an immesnse amount of weight by running, which would be good for me because I've put on a bit of weight, while subsisting in a miserable manner for a while.  Anway I thought I'd give it a go...but it did not go too well.

I set off at about 7, I went out along the back of Tongdosa, it was a nice view.  Lots of farm land, I was looked upon by various Koreans as an oddity, probably because I am white, running...outside (they only run in the gym) and not wearing the running gear (because all Koreans have sports clothes for sports).  I ran for a bit, slowed, then ran again and went on like that, but I rounded a corner and I took a breather, but then I heard a dog.  I looked around, but it was difficult to see because it was getting dark.  Then the dog came running out, it gave me a mighty suprise becuase it was a suprisingly big dog, some sort of mastif.  It came running forward, which was not something I expected, so I legged it, it did come to a stop though, it was just on an obscenely long chain. 

I kept running for a bit longer and found a 'sports centre' out in the middle of nowhere, it basically amounts to a astroturf pitch for football and tennis.  So I turned around and went back, this time as I went past the house with the dog, I just fucking pegged it.  Finally when I got home I realised that I had blisters on my feet, what!?  Then I realised, oh yeah that's because my shoes are falling apart.

I have gotten to the point with my clothing that it is starting to fall apart.  I could, I guess buy some more clothes while I'm here, but as a run low on clothes it will be easier to leave stuff here and transport less.  Also I really hate shopping.  So far, my shoes are falling apart - I should do something about that.  Trousers falling apart etc - meh.  Ah well.

Once I get some more shoes maybe I'll give running another go, but this time a different route.

Re-starting work

I started back at work this week after some time off for holiday.  It's a little bit odd and it has been rather annoying.  The first day I went back I discovered that my projector was missing, this meant that I could not use my computer with the kids, because I would have no way of sharing the information.  Basically it just makes my life that bit harder.  But to add to that the room next to mine was locked.  This is an issue because the printer I use is in that room.  I need visuals because I am teaching alone and most of the kids have little to no English.  So, locked, okay, get the key.  Well no, the room is locked and the key is missing and the only person I can ask about it speaks no English...great!

Well I was able to solve the locked room problem by finding a room next to that, which via conveluted means I can access and through that room I can get to the printer...great...  Anyway, the main reason that it's so weird at school at the moment is that the kids and the staff are still on holiday.  So basically I am teaching classes on my own and generally there is not even anyone I can go to if I have issues, thankfully the kids have been good up to now.

I did get my projector back though today, at the end of the day.  The teacher I suspected had taken it, had indeed done so.  I had sent him a text to no avail, but I got an English speaking teacher to help me out.  Ach well, at least I have it back now.

Since I had some issues with making my classes productive, I have at least dealt with the 6th grade for a little while.  I have decided that I will teach them how to make cookies.  It had been a plan of mine previously, but I had not decided when to do it.  So I have begun the lessons needed prior to the baking the cookies.  It could be messy, but it hopefully will be fun and it is pretty useful since I have them 4 times a week.  Also they seem to be pretty excited about the concept of baking in class.  I am planning to do a demo this Friday and then let them have a go on Tuesday, next week.  I am not sure whether I will bring my oven into school or whether I will just take the mix home and then return the cookies the next day.  I will have to see.

Hmm, well that's it really, I can get back to methods I am more familiar with and those that I am certain work at my school.  Not to say that other methods of teaching aren't good, but there are certain things that I have tried and they just don't work with the kids I have.  Mainly due to ability and interest.

Homesick?

I oddly became a little homesick today.  I have been pretty bored and rather fed up in the last month or two, but I have not really experienced homesickness.  However on the way to work this morning, I was sat on the bus and listening to some music I haven't heard in just over in about 7 months, which took me back to the very beginning of my experience out here.  Then as the bus moved past a sort of construction yard I saw some mundane pieces of scrap metal and for some odd reason it made me think of the UK.  Then feeling fell away rather quickly, but it was very odd.

Chicken Korma

Success! I have succeeded.  It has taken me quite a while to source decent cuts of meat in Korea...well specifically in my town.  However yesterday I succeeded, I found I could buy frozen chicken breasts and for a pretty good price too.  Then today I ventured up to Eonyang and sourced as many of the spices as I could to make a curry.  I had been shown the shop by a friend recently.  I was able to get a hold of coconut milk, curry powder and Tumeric, which means I was missing corriander, but it's pretty good regardless.  I also got a ton of cheap vegtables from the market.  Then I returned home and set about making my curry.  I looked at recipies on the internet, but I found them to be far too complicated, given what I had and I have no means of measuring the items I have, so I just made it up. 

1 Onion
2 chicken breasts
1 can of coconut milk
some tumeric, curry powder, paprika, salt, pepper. (not sure of the amounts, just enough to make it look right and for it to taste right).
a dash of chili powder
a dash of olive oil (all I had at hand)

And that's it, other than the rice to go with it.  I wish I could have gotten some naan, that would have been amazing.  But anyway it worked out pretty well, I just need to play with the spices a bit more next time to try and get it a little closer.

I also made some soup today, much easier to make:

1 onion
1 big potato
3 sticks ofspring onions
2 small vegtable stock cubes
water to cover it.

Then boil to mush and stick it in the blender.  Add more water as necessary.

Well didn't mean to start out as a cooking post, but hey there you go, they're both good recipes, taste good and are fairly healthy, well the second one certainly is, the first, maybe less so if eaten often.

Kimchi

After doing my daily Kung-fu (that I started this holiday) I was really hungry, also I hadn't eaten today, so I went to have a big meal.  I had bulgogi in a sort of water dish, it's something I know I like, but its made for 2 people, so I always make sure I'm pretty much starving before I go.  Now the meal was really good, as I knew it would be and it came with some great side dishes, but it also came with several versions of Kimchi.  Anybody who knows me here would probably attest to the fact that I just won't eat Kimchi.  Yes it can be a little too spicy for me at times depending upon the type, but my main reasoning is that I think it just tastes awful.

I was finishing off my large meal, or at least as much as I could eat and I sat back for a bit to regain my composure.  I saw a fly that had been buzzing around the room, it had attempted to settle on several dishes and I had shooed it away, however it had chosen to land on one of the Kimchi side dishes and I really didn't care.  SO as my stomach settled a little I watch the fly take it's time to scout out the bowl.  It located some of the Kimchi, then backed off quickly.  Again it got closer to the Kimchi and actually tried it this time, but again it was driven back by what I can only assume is the taste.  After a third time it gave up.  The result I am choosing to take from this observation is that if a creature that will basically eat anything, including shit doesn't like Kimchi, that's reason enough not to eat it.

Half of the Whiterys

With another person having left my town today and one other being on Holiday there are currently only two white guys residing in my town and I am one of them.  Normally I should represent one 5th of the whitey population of Tongdosa, but at this moments in time I am half of the whitey population.  It's really quite odd.

Nightmares

It's been a long time since I had a nightmare that truely scared me.  I had two last night, the first one broke the streak.  It was a rather odd dream to begin with.  I was in some sort of galleon or brig like ship, fleeing from a larger force.  We among the ship I was upon had been handed oars to make a more expedient flight.  However there were members people on the ship that deemed themselves too officious for such work and refused to help.  Me/My character stood and confronted one of the people at the end of a rapier.  During our fight another was wounded.  He took a slash across the arm.  The fight came to an end with the second man drawing his weapon upon me.  I remember in the dream I was confident I could defeat them both, but I did not want to kill them, I just wanted them to take up the oars.  So I yielded hoping they would see good sense.  But the second man, the wounded man, took up my rapier that had become bent in the fight and attempted to jam it up my nose and into my brain.  I fought hard for a few long hard second before my body went numb and although I could still feel my body fighting I had no control and I was losing the battle.  I was grasped suddenly by true terror.  The I awoke breathing heavily and sweating.  It took me a little while to shake it from my concious and my body to calm down.

The second nightmare was not so frightening.  But enough to wake me and for me to remember in fairly vivid detail after waking.  It begun rather mundanely.  For some reason or another I had left some bedsheets behind at my highschool and one of the administrators picked them up for me and would hold them at her house.  I was fairly certain where she lived and made my way over.  When I arrived I found that it was not the house I had thought it was, in fact she was it was the house my grandma used to own.  Worse, she no longer lived there and the house was instead inhabited by one of her psychotic sons.  What ensued, certaibly was not fun.The guy brought out his rather disgusting girlfriend and together they berated their friends and more or less beat the crap out of them.  For some reason I stuck by, I was adamant to find out about the sheets for some unknown reason.  As one may suspect it ended by me having th crap beaten out of me.  Later in the dream I went to the police at the urging of my parents.  The dream melts away from  me now.  I am not sure of the conclusion, but it did not awake me in the same violent manner as the first.

All in all a really crappy night.

Korean TV

I've been watching Korean TV lately, it's a mild distraction.  For the most part I cannot watch many of the channels due to the lack of my Korean, however there are some channels that I am able to watch due to the frequent American films and tv shows.  TV is similar to American TV in that there is an obscene number of commericals, however they are in a rather different pattern.  In America there are frequent breaks and a fair number of adverts.  In Korea however, there are fewer breaks but an obscene number of commericals.  It is easier to avoid them though, because I can generally guess roughly how long they would last.  But something that is a little odd is that the adverts that they show are only of a limmited number.  They will just show the same ones over and over during a single break.  I remember the first time I left the TV on as I did other things, the same one commerical must have run at least 8 times and a few of those times one after another.  That particular break must have been 20 minutes in total.  Painful if one were to sit through many of them.

I have also noticed that when showing American TV shows a channel will show the episodes one after another until the series is complete and then continue again.  This can go on for a few weeks, before they will switch to another show.  This is fairly common place for old shows on cable channels both in the UK and the US, however in Korea they will even do this with new shows which I find rather odd.  Plus they will show no repeats in between in case one missed an episode. One must instead wait for the next cycle to see the episode.

Of cousre I am not forced to only watch Korean TV, I have my computer and therefore have access to the massive databases that the internet holds.  But the few channels I can watch on TV are a worthwhile stand-by, that is once you get past the adverts that quickly become very annoying due to the frequency of their showing.

Diet

It's not a suprise that my diet has changed while I have been living in Korea.  However, because I cook most of my meals myself I am not fully enveloped in the standard Korean diet.  However due to a lack of basic ingredients my diet is rather restricted. Generally during the school year my diet is mainly rice and fish at school and then a mix of rice, potatoes and the odd scrap of meat at home.  I realised recently, while it has been the summer holidays that I generally I am maybe eating meat once a wek when I go and meet up with friends, but otherwise the meat I can get a hold of to eat in cooking, is either not worth it or far too expensive.  Another problem with meat is that, that which you can get at resteraunts is fairly fatty.  There are very few good cuts of meat out there and those that do exist will cost you the earth to buy.  For the most part I get my protien these days from tuna (I cannot find a great deal of choice with fish that I would actually like to eat) and what they call cheese here (which basically amounts to the most plastic like cheese you can think of).

While I have been in Korea I have successfully put weight on, this is counter to what I prefer.  I have come to the conclusion that my weight gain is mainly due to the fact that I live in such a boring place with little to no friends.  This makes it rather easy to turn to foid as a means of enjoyment.  Also I fail to get regular exercise, it is especially difficult to motivate ones self to do so when the temperature is so high and humid.  I have atempted to change my diet of late to cut out some of the bad stuff and not to over eat.  Hopefully by adjusting my diet I can cut down some of the weight I have gained.  Most likely it will be a slow process, but if I can just keep my mind on it I should be able to bring my weight down and maybe I'll even be able to motivate myself into propper exercise when the temperature comes down a little.

Long Walk in Ulsan

I went to Ulsan on Friday to see Jake, before he goes back to the US.  I had more time since I had some holiday.  I arrived mid afternoon, but I arrived to an empty flat which was a little odd. He had given me the access code, but it was just me in the flat until about 9pm that night when he and his girlfriend finished work.  Before he got back I just spent some time exploring the area and only a small time on my laptop, since it over-heated too well at his flat.  Once he did arrive we went out his friend's resteraunt.  The guy who owned the resteraunt was a 60 odd year old Korean with a fair level of English.  Jake supplied the whisky and the guy supplied the food.  It was good food too.  I don't eat out all that much in Korea, but this was right ot my tastes.  So the food was good, the drink was alright and the conversation was good.  After that we went to a Norebang and I proved what a terrible singer I was once again.  Just as ever I did only enough songs so I could escape.  Jake seems to like singing, he's...well, not good, but very serious about it and the other guy was actually alright.  Chana, Jake's girlfirend, had no intention of singing and succeeded in not doing so.

We went back to his place, but after coming to a conclusion that there was little to do there we decided to go down to the beach.  It was already 3am but I though waht the hey, I'm on holiday.  So when we arrived we played a couple of the carnival sort of games.  Hit the batting cage, hit the punch bags, played a couple of hoops.  It was pretty fun, but I messed up my last punch and bruised my knuckes.  Then we headed down to the beach.  Jake had come to the conclusion that he would be far too hung over to do anything the next day, so if there was anything we wanted to do, we may as well do it now.  So we headed over to a rock formartion on the coast, it was pretty nice, but odd making out way over in the dark.  By the time we were heading back the sun had risen over the sea.  People were arriving to see the rocks, even at 5am!  Koreans.

To get back to Jake's we needed to take a taxi, but I decided it would be good to walk back.  Jake agreed, however he wanted us to drink as we did so, not really my choice.  I was done with drinking.  He brought along some Soju...bleugh.  The walk back ,ust have taken us about 3 hours, we got some food on the way back.  It was really good though, I got some exercise and I got to see the city at it's best as far as I'm concerned.  People were heading to their work places in the huge industrial buildings in huge numbers and the city was otherwise quiet, but waking up.  I enjoyed the walk, Jake seemed to also, but he was propper drunk, no control over his motor skills.

Once back, I got about 5 hours sleep and then headed home later in the afternoon.  Jake on the other hand was barely awake, I would not be suprised if he was not still hung over to some degree.


A side note - I had successfully messed up my right hand a bit, with that stray punch, but I also messed up my left hand a little too.  This was done a little differently, I had opened the Whisky bottle early on in the night and the casing was basically sharp metal, so I scratched the crap out of my hand.  It looks like I had a fight where I was fending off a rather small knife.

Last Day of Term

Today was the last day of term.  Therefore it meant most of my day consisted of desk warming.  I was pretty sure that would be the outcome of the day really.  I saked around to see if the day would end early, but I was assured that would not be the way of things.  For the most part of the dayI get watched tv or read, etc.  I had absolutely nothing I had to do, although I did also do a little bit of prep for summer and I cleaned my room.  I played with the kids and that was about it.  After lunch the teachers were all runnign around like headless chickens trying to finish everything before the very end of school.

So I just sat around and waited for the end of the day.  However after a whilke I realised that it was super quiet.  I went out into the corridoor to discover that everybody had left.  I believe they had gone on that trip, but even so, they could have told me they were leaving.  Anyway, it was about an hour before the propper end of the day, so I decided to cut my losses and just leave.  There was one guy left, but if he had any objections he wouldn't be able to voice them, at least not in English.  I wasn't doing anything bad really, I was just leaving an empty school where I had nothing to do.

Someone tried to get into my flat!

It was fucking weird and scary.  Last night I was soundly asleep, when heared what sounded like by door being banged by a heavy wind, I did not rouse initially, but the banging continued, so I got up. I went out the 'hallway' of my flat and I found that it was not the wind, but rather that someone was trying to unlock my door.  I quickly came to the conclusion that this was someone who must be drunk and was attempting to gain access to my flat.  I quickly tried to come up with a plan to deal with this, I was afraid that a drunk person could pose just as much a threat to me as someone attempting to burgularise my flat.  Unfortunately my door does not have a spy hole, so I had to prepare to deal with an unknown.  The best I could do was to grab a big knife and ready myself.  I waited for a short while, hoping the person would leave.  But no, they just tried over and over and over to access my door.  Eventually they became more violent and begun to bang my door.  So I decided it was about time I dealt with it.  My body was coursing with adrenaline, so I was ready as I would ever be.

I shouted through the door in the most threatening voice and manner I could muster "What the FUCK are youd doin?"  I don't know if it was a loud, angry froeigner or just threatening, but I heard footsteps leading away after I shouted.  I left the footfalls continue before I peaked out. I recognised the sound of heels, so the attemptee was a woman.  I deemed her far enough away, so I chanced a glance at this woman.  She heard me open the door and her pace increased.  She wanted to escape actual notice.  She failed.  I waited, but she did not leave the building, she simply went to the floor below and tried her luck on the door directly below.

I can only conclude that she does in fact live in this building, but she continued to struggle with the door below, before she finally either gave up or actually found her room.  I returned to my room and the adrenaline rushed from my body, but it still took me a while to go to sleep.

This was not a pleasant experience, not by any means.  I am of course glad that the event ended as it did, with no violence, but I would much prefer it to never have occurred in the first place.

This week

This week was the departure of Jeff.  His departure menat that there would be one less whitey, therefore menaing that I am now representing one quater of the the English speaking foreignes in this town.  He left on Tuesday so we (all the whiteys) met up to say a farewell to him on Monday.  At first I was led to believe that we would be going out for a meal, which would then be followed by a couple of drinks.  However he was delayed at work and such, so we did not in fact go out until 9pm.  This was less than perfect for me.  I generally have no interest in a late night when I have work the next day, but I thought I would make an exception this time.  I kept a handle on the amount I was drinking unlike my companions, I could accept being tired at work, but not drunk or hungover.  The night lasted until about 2 am, but it was follwed by almost an hourt of faffing about as I gathered various items from Jeff's place that he was otherwise going to be leaving behind.  Although pretty tired when I got to bed that night, I was pretty happy.  I had obtained a variety of cooking implements and dishes, but most importantly of all I had got my hands on a blender, which now allows me to make soup :-D

The next day at work was not very difficult at all, due to the fact that the students in the 6th grade were taking a country wide exams.  So it was probably the perfect day to follow a late night. I only had the one class.

Thursday

Thursday was abysmal in the morning as ever. However rather than the standard crap that I have to go through with my co-teacher, it was a different ste of events. This would be our last class before the summer holiday, therefore she wanted to allow the kids to just play games and watch movies.  I am by no means adverse to this.  However having taught in my school for seven months I have finally got a feel of what the kids like generally.  She had brought some word games for the kids to play, where they had to arrange scarbble like tiles into words.  Now that's all well and good, but the kids I teach on a thirsday morning are generally, not able to do such activities.  Also they have a tendency to lose focus easily (most probably because they never see any discipline).  Therefore when she produced them for the first lesson, I knew they would go down like a lead balloon, but she never listens to me, so I didn't even try.

It took a good two minutes before they had scattered them all over the floor and another set had succesfully made a sort of mosaic, nice but completely missing the point.  In an effort to regaing some control she then wrote a bunch of words up on the board, which the students could then recreate.  However that move therefore removed the very point of giving them the letters, because they just copied the words and then gave up.  They had no interest in it.  Finally having given up on that she moved to have me put on a movie.  I knew exactly what would happen next, they would indulge her for a short period and then the majority would get bored, while a small percentage tried in vain to hear the film over their companions acting out loudly.

It happened just as I had predicted.  Now it may sound a little like I was just waiting for this to happen and had had no intent in averting it.  However at the start of the day, she told me her intent...rather than ahead of time so I could properly prepare.  But still I had a go I created some games that I know the kids would at least mildly enjoy and it would tug at their competetivness.  Plus it would also still practise some English.  Yet my ideas were shot down, by the 'all knowing all crap' co-teacher.  Therefore rather than argue I just sat back and watched chaos ensue.

She actually made it worse though, perhaps 20 minutes into Harry Potter she decided that she didn't want to watch it and instead put on another film, that of course finally turned off the final behaving kids because they had been removed from the film they were actually trying to follow.

Well all of the above for Thursday occurred in just two lessons, that being with the 3rd grade.  I still had another two more lessons to get through with her.  These next lessons being with the 4th grade.  There would be more kids to keep a handle of.  I just hoped that she would at least have learnt from her mistakes in the first two lessons and leave her word game alone and just let me present the games I had put togetehr. However I was of course proven wrong.

She started by telling the kids there would be no lesson, which they all cheered to, then she brought out the word game, to which most students looked at blankly as if she had just told a big fat lie, because to them, no lesson means, no speaking English.  So just as before the letters quickly dissappeared to the floor and the kids started to go psycotic.  To try and restore order she went ot her back-up, a film.  Yet for some reason she chose Harry Potter again, a film which we had already seen the beginning of and she had rejected part way through. At this point I entirely gave up on any for of logic making it's way into her head.  So I just grabbed some Uno cards and went to the back of the room and try to attract as many of the kids who didn;t want to watch the film as I could.  This worked ro some degree, those who wanted to watch the film could and those that didn't could play with me.

However this only successfully worked for half of the lesson and for the second half it descended into chaos and by this point I had sort of died inside and I just settled playing with the kids until the bell rang.

After school I brought in some ramen and icecream for my 6th graders so that we could just have something to eat, relax and talk. It is by far my favourite class and I am willing to shell out for something a bit different to sort of thank them for being my saving grace on a Thursday afternoon.

Friday

This day was fairly easy int he morning as it normally is, however the afternoon held a few suprises.  The first being that my 5th graders actually turned up and in force.  But of cousre they didn't actually want to do any work, but I saw it through.

No, thing that was a 'suprise' or so to speak and pissed me off was what my co-teacher had to say in the last minutes of my working day.  I had packed up my room and locked up too.  I was just about to leave to get my bus, when my standard co-teacher told me that there would be a staff trip on the following Tuesday and if I wanyed to come I would have to tell them there and then without any further knowledge.  I deemed this ridiculous and bargained a day in which to consider it.  So I left at that point, I had my shoes on and my foot out the door, when she caught up with me again and told me that I needed to let the school I would be doing my summer camp at know what I would need and what book I wanted use.  Except that I should told them by yesterday.  But because she had forgotten to tell me it was basically now my problem.  So I left school in a fairly fould mood.

I, thankfully had already sorted out my summer camp problems, but the fact that she did not tell me until it was too late is the thing that pissed me off.

Saturday

It is Saturday now, I have not done a great deal today, but one thing I did do was come to a conclusion about whether I wanted to go on the staff trip.  I have decided that I do not.  Although I can just about stand a mela with my co-workers a full two days without any form of control in my life for that time.  There are various factors that I had to weigh but my overall findings were that I would spend most of my time being ignored.  Now I am not saying that I dislike the staff at all in fact they are generally very nice people.  But I do not think it would be good for my netal health to suffer through two solid days of very little human interaction and any that was given to me would likely be forced.  Well that's that, I'm up to date.  I have a little holiday coming up following this Tuesday, so maybe there will be more ranting on my blog.

*One Final Note* Although I may rant a lot about Korea and Koreans, it is generally because my experiences are generally not all that good.  However I know other people that enjoy their time here much more significantly I do.  I do not hate it here, but I do not have nearly as much of a good time as they do.

Gum

For fuck's sake!

I can undersand the allure of chewing gum, it tastes pleasant and it gives you something to do.  But it sure can be fucking annoying.  Older women in Korea seem to be intent on chewing it into oblivion.  They'll just stick in a slice if gum and chew it until their mouth implodes due to over use.  But the thing is that they chew gum with their mouths open so that you can hear each and every chew.  This is something I have come to notice much more significantly since my mp3 player stopped working.  I suppose that this could just be a regional thing, but I think not and I have observed this, much to my irritation from many women. However it only seems to be with the 40 somethings, that likely have a family and most if not all have stopped caring.

Stuff

This week has been a fairly average week.  However I find there are generally things worth talking about in Korea, even though as a whole I have a boring life.  On Wednesday we had a meal to welcome the newest member of staff.  The main administrator of the school had left at the end of last week, which meant that one of the people I have been incapable of having a conversation with all year would be leaving.  However she would also be taking her rather cute two boys in the kindergarten.  So as normal I was not clued into whatever would be occuring in would be occurring.  Normally that would mean that we would be going to a resteraunt for a billion years and I would have to go and would not be able to leave until I had drunk far too much and been forced to do norebang.  However this week it was a suprising and welcoming change.  We had a meal at the caferteria, with food that had been brought in from the outside: Watermelon, sweet and sour pork and chicken.  Really good food and I did not have to loose my entire day to have it.

Thursday was not too bad, not good, but certainly much better than last week though.  I was actually given a chance to do some of the teaching and of course I was completely relied upon to provide games for the lesson which I had been given no time to prefer...great...

Friday was going pretty normally up until later in the afternoon.  When I got a phone call from my co-teacher/supervisor.  She was calling from a local school that I would be teaching the summer camp from in about 2 weeks time.  Apparently I needed to be at the school to talk about the camp and make some plans, however I was not. Therefore she would have to return to the school to pick me up, she should have told me before and brought me along, but she had not read the instructions properly.  Anyway I am used to that sort of thing, but on the way over to the school she backed into another car.  Great Korean driving to see in person...  Okay the rest of the meeting was fine and so brings me to the end of the working week.

On Saturday I went into Busan as usual, nothing special happened there, but it did rain all day and it was super heavy.  Possibly the heaviest I have experienced in here in Korea.  So as you can imagine we got fairly wet and spent our time dodging in and out of shops.

Finally here on Sunday, I decided to make some bread.  It went well, I was able to find some yeast at the Homeplus in Busan so it was a resounding success rather than the catastrophic failure I have come across when trying to make cakes with the available ingredients here in Korea.

Well, that's it I guess.  I always experience the weird stuff of course, but that's seeping into my brain turning it into standard reality and so I fail to report on it quite as often.  For instance the noises you can hear when out and about. The hacking noises people make as the hock up flem and spit it out (something that happens overly much), a man who sneezes in a similar manner that a Turkey 'talks' and a fella in one of the toilets sounded like he was trying very ahrd to produce a baby.

Night all.

Thursday

Had a crappy day on thursday.  It was the sane old bullshit as ever, I had to do 4 hours of classes with a teacher who wants me to give absolutely no input to the lesson and just sit at the back of the room like a useless piece of shit.  I am used to her manner to some degree, but never so far has she pushed me entirely from any control of the classroom.  It was a total affront to me.  I have no interest in being a useless piece of furniture.  I think I could abide being ignored if my co-teacher were able to actually do the job, but that is not the case.  She is unable to control the class in any form, which is a main aspect of her job.  Another issue is that her English is not of a high enough level for her to teach alone, she makes many basic errors that should not be passed on to the kids.  However it appears as though I have no real options though.  I could rock the boat, but saving face seems too important to the Koreans.  So I am forced to see that the best step forward for myself is just to let it pass me by and try to let go of the problems the kids may later face due to her teaching.

This is not a favourable result but it is the only one I can come to at this time.

Typhoon rain

Heavy rain has set in for the weekend, a typhoon is passing over.  However I like rain and it has helped to keep the heat down in Korea.  The humidity is not dimished, but it is generally nicer while it is raining.  I like to go out and enjoy the scenery.  I have been lucky enough to live close to visual attractive places in my life: a steam railway, a park and a canal.  But I have never until now enjoyed the view of a river.  On most days the river is barely worth that name, but when it rains for a couple of days that rapidly changes and it becomes more like a torrent.  I have posted pictures before of a wet day, but this time it has been super wet and I am going to post some more.

Water collection and blasting it's way to the central river.

The hills have disappeared behind the rain.

View from the top of my building looking out onto the river.

The rain is supposed to come to an end tomorrow, but it didn't actually start until a day after the weatherman said so, so I will asume that it is a little changeable.  So let's see when the rain will come again next, which I believe will be soon, since it is the rainy season after all.

Some kids

I had my camera at school on friday, so I thought I would take some pictures of the kids, they were all just messing about in my classroom at dinner time, or with the 6th grade I caught them in class, of couse some of them turned away from the camera, mainly the girls, but that's the same around the world. 

Random students:

These other kids are students from my 6th grade class: