Plenty of stuff.

I have been away from my blog for a wee while, so I'm going to fill ya'll  in on the past events of late.

13th April

I had just finished teaching at about 3pm, with grade 2 and they had been pretty terrible when one of the teachers came in and told me were going hiking right then.  I had no hiking gear and I was dressed far too formally for such an activity.  However I had no choice, but to go along with it.  So I hopped into the Principal's car and proceeded to be a passenger for about an hour and we winded our way to a hill in Busan that we would climb.  Once we finally got there we had to wait around for about half an hour because some of the teachers in another car had gotten lost on the way over.  Finally when we were all together we set off up the big hill.  I have to say dressy shoes, smart trousers and a shirt are not the desired items of clothing for hiking.  They did not stop me, but it certainly made the going much tougher than it needed to be.  Parts of the hike were up well walked paths, but others took us onto paths closer to animal trails.  The views were great and at one point we came across some naturally growing flowers.  This was amazing for me because prior ro this, other than cherry blossoms I had seen no real flowers.  I have never really considered myself a flower man, but I think when you have been brought up in a country that appreciates them and then without for several months, one misses them. 

The exercise was certainly good for me, but the hike munched up much of the day and I was left dusty and tired, yet I was unable to return to my humble abode.  No, I had to go for a meal with the staff.  I thought that it would suck, not because the food they normally choose to eat is bad by any means, but because I just wanted to go home.  However I was happily suprised when I found that we were going to a buffet, because there, there would at least be options.  An amusing point is that when I was asked if I like buffet, their accent and just the general way they said it, made it sound like they were asking me if I liked pupa, to which I flatly said no.  But they persisted and one of them showed me the translation on his phone, so naturally we all had a good laugh.

When we arrived at the resteraunt it because clear that this was not your normal buffet, this was going to be good.  Looking around we looked somewhat out of place, my group was all dressed for hiking, whereas the rest of the clientel were dressed up, I felt at least my being overdressed would make me blend in...well the best one can when you are one of the few white people there.  The resteraunt was called 'The Party'.  The food was good and there were options of dishes from around the world, plus it was all you can eat, so I just tried a bit of everything, then picked out what I liked and ate plenty of it.

However after the initial joy of finding that we had gone to an eatery that I would enjoy, there was the issue of the group did not seem to understand the concept of leaving.  We must have been in there for at least 3 hours.  All were done a fair while before we finally left.  I could not say anything about wanting to leave because I was entirely dependent upon someone else for a lift.  So I kept stum and twidled my thumbs for about an hour.  Because although conversation would occasionally float in my direction, for the most part people wanted to speak in Korean, which is fair enough, but it just turned me into a third wheel.

All in all the excursion had been good, but it had taken up all of my afternoon and night and for long periods throughout the day I was fairly silent since I lack the language skills to otherwise participate.

16th April

On this day I went into Busan to meet up with Matrt and a bunch of his friends, they were all in the city for a stag do.  Two of the attendees were going to be getting married shortly after.  I did not know either of them, but that had let me tag along.  I arrived a little later than them, since I was coming from a different direction.  At first I had to get past the not knowing anyone bit, that any one suffers at first being the odd one out.  But I was looking forward to a day of being around people that I could properly communicate with.  It was supposed to be a whole day and night of festivities.  So when I arrived at the Fuzzy Naval in Haedunae I made sure I got some food down my neck. Then afterwards we set out to drink a couple of beers on the beach.  At first this was fine, but as time eeked on I began to feel the chill of the wind because I had changed into smart attire as I had been told we would be visiting a casino, which would be a first for me.  But acting on standard western thinking I dressed up.  However we spent an inordinate amount of time on the beach, so by the time we left I had lost feeling in much of my upper half, so the wind was not bothering me so much, but regardless I needed to get out of the cold.

As with having a fair sized group of guys (12) we had the standard group mentality, in that we seemed unable to make a decision between us and so we spent long periods of time standing and waiting or arguing about the next course of action.  Howver we finally made it to the Casino and I discovered three interesting facts.  1.  I did not need to be dressed up.  2. The minimum bet on most of the games and tables as well as the slot machines were very low.  3. Koreans are not allowed to gamble, so there would be only foreigners in the Casino.

I spent a fair amount of my time at a roulette table, just passing the time really.  I put roughly $20 dollars down as my stake money and as the time wore by my money ebbed and flowed, but by the time I decided I was done with the game I left breaking even.  I had won no money, but I had lost none either and I had bided my time as the others won or lost much higher amouts of money than I was willing to part with.

After a long period in the Casino I was getting hungry and after persuading enough people we finally made our move onto somewhere to eat.  We had some very Westernised food, basically burgers all around, I think.  They were good though.  At this point I realised that other than the beer I had had on the beach, I had not been drinking.  I was not excesively bothered, but rather just suprised, since this was supposed to be a stag party.

Then we finally moved onto a bar and we came across some people we knew, not from Busan, but the area we were in is an area frequented by western teachers.  We spent some time in there and some of the group left for home at about 10pm.  Then we moved back to the Fuzzy Naval and it was a good atmosphere there and soent some time in there before atempting to go to a club.  At this point only 3 of us were together: me, Matt and another guy.  But we were turned away, they said that we were not dressed correctly and too old.  I can tell you that I was neither under nor over dressed and I cannot be too old, unless this club is designed for children.  I believe the actual answer is that we were white, because Koreans worse dressed and older stumbled past without issue.

Finally we came to the end of the night at a place where you pay to sleep on the floor.  You get a duvet and a floor mat.  I had thought it would be terrible, but it was not allo that bad, yet I still awoke naturally early and returned home to get some real sleep.  All in all the stag do had been infuriating.  There had been some high points, but due to the lack of organisation it had dragged on endlessly with long periods of boredom.  Yet, not the worst time either, when it did finally get going things were alright.

20th April

Not a long one here, just that we played volleyball again.  I did in fact have gear I could wear for this, I had pre-empted it, by just bringing some comfier clothes in case.  Basically all that can be said here is that I was terrible and made a complete fool of myself.  Yet this is basically the second time I have ever played, so I wish they would stop expecting me to suddenly get good.

21st April

This day was interesting and as ever tinged by infuriation.  I arrived at work early as always and dressed in my normal rather formal attire.  I had gained some knowledge of some students going on a trip that day from the messages that fly about on the school messenger.  However the messages are in Korean and I must translate them, so obviously they do not make much sense and I must use a lot of guess work.  I watched as the students formed up outside.  Then I became a little suspicious, so I approached one of the teachers and asked which grades exactly were going.  After a few attempts of explaing, I had thought I had myself partially clear and the teacher said grade 1&2.  Satisfied I went back to my room.  Then she came in and gave me a piece of paper which had a chart and Korean on it.  I just sort of blankly nodded and then sat back down.  She came back once more and then said grade 5, then left.  I became rather confused, why would grade 1, 2 and 5 go on a trip together.  At first I pushed it aside and just thought they would do differnt things.#

Then after a short while longer I looked out of the window and saw most of the school outside.  Once more my suspicions arose.  I looked up and down the hallways and they were clear of teachers and students and many rooms were locked.  I did however find one teacher and I knew she would understand me because she has better English than some of the others.  I asked her what was happening and she just happily said "We're going on a trip".  I returned with, "Oh, and what about me, am I to stay here?" She looked a little confused and said, "No, you're coming too."  I just stared at her for a moment and then explained that no-one had told me this.  She said that the trip had been moved forward a day due to forthcoming weather.  Again I explained that no-one had informed me of any trip that I would be attending. 

She told me I should pack up and get my stuff.  I hurried along best I could and met her outside when I was done.  She told some of the other teachers about my predicament, all looked suprised, but none could do anything for me.  Once more I was expected to just tag along, regardless of whether I was ready for it or not.

I was piled into a car with some kids because there were not enough seats on the coaches they had hired to seat everyone.  The journey was not too long.  Once at the place, I had some fun with the kids and saw some interesting things at the Millenium park that we were at in Gyeongju.  I saw some mock battles and a display of horse archery and horse acrobatics that was pretty cool.  But once again I was wearing the wrong attire and because I had had no warning I had not been adaquetely prepared to spend the day in the sun.  So as you can probably guess, with my colouring I got sunburnt.  There were some pretty cool things in the surrounding area that I would like to go back and see, for instance there was a building that had what looked like a cut out of a pagoda in it's middle.  Pretty cool.  I also saw a huge hot air baloon in the sky.

All in all it was a good day, I got out of a busy day at school and I got to view some pretty cool sights and I also got to hang out with the kids outside the school walls.  Yet it was still tinged with irritation due to the fact that once more I had been unprepared because I had been left out of the loop until the very last moment.  I guess from now on I just need to have a spare change of clothes at work, in case.

22nd April

Another short one.  This just to say that I finally got around to ordering an oven.  This should improve my quality of life some because it will re-open culenary doors I have had blocked from me for the last 4 months.  I know many people here who eat out every day.  But for me, I like to cook and I really miss oven baked foods, but baking and general cooking.  I will actually be able to have baked potatoes again!

This weekend

 I have done nothing of note.  I have cleaned my flat, cooked spaghetti bolognase from scratch (no premade sauces here, nor even tinned tomatoes) and let my sun burn heal some.

The Cherry Blossom Festival

Yesterday was the Cherry Blossom Festival.  The kids had spent the last week on and off making big lanterns of different sizes and shapes that would be put up around the playground later.  The day of clases were cancelled for the most part.  I did teach later in the afternoon, but to be honest with the hangover I was glad not to be teaching.

The kids, teachers and other staff were busy all day preparing and I helped where I could, but there was little for me to do, so I just entertained some of the kids for a time.

I took an early meal with the teachers and staff at a local resteraunt, it was a quick ordeal, because people wanted to back so that they could meet the alumni and get ready for the festival.  People had come from all around the small town and those that had once attended and were doing well for themeselves had also arrived.  So the playground was filled with the kids, past students and dignitary like guests and all were coming together to share conversation and food.  Everybody sat under the cherry blossoms and talked.  It's like those sorts of street parties they had after the second world war.  I juest wish that I could have gotten more involved.  But without any sort of grasp of the Korean language I was always on the side lines and the few friends I do have at the school were very busy.

I did not mind, but as 7:30pm approached and I had done the rounds I decided it was about home time.  I was lacking sleep from the night before and no one had spoken to me in a while, so I took my leave.  Although it was something of a lonely affair for me, it was still good and the kids were all very happy.

Strange food, good night.

I think my blogging may have been turned down for the most part. I am no longer able to blog at work, so it is most likely that I will only do so at the weekends now.

This week I have two things to blog about, the first is Thursday night.  I went out with some of the teachers from my school.  Although in places I felt a bit like a third wheel with my lack of Korean, the teachers began to open up a little later and they reall tried.  Overall I had a good night out with them.  Now that sounds like a very short post, but the meat of the topic is what I ate.  They had been umming and ahing about where to take me for a while, their ideas were not exactly the sort of food I would have chosen.  But I decided I should at least try these things, if I did not like them I would never have them again.

The first place we went to was a place that served offal, for any that don't know that's basically internal organs.  These were of a cow, I was more than a little dubious, but I tried all that was on offer.  Some of it was very fatty and others that were quite meaty and tasty.  I cannot be sure what everything was, but I do know that I had kidney and intestines over spring onions (like a sort of sausage), there were other things too, but I really have no idea what they were.  I guess this goes further to show that I am losing my western squeamishness to food.

Following the end of that meal we moved on to the next eatery and this one I have to say I was not exactly looking forward to, but I made it quite clear at least that I would not eat them raw.  We were going to have oysters.  They were dirt cheap too, so not the sort of expsense you have to shell out for in the west and probably therefore much fresher too.  They did not taste bad, very irony, but I couldn't get over the texture, they were, every time I ate one my body openly cringed to some extent.

There was also a side dish at the oyster place: butterfly pupa.  The others were gobbling them up, so maybe they did taste good, but I just couldn't cross the line.  I guess in time I may go past it, but as it stands I still have certain western sensibilities as far as food is concerned (even though they are being worn down). 

Of course to aid in the consumption of these rather bizarre foods plenty of soju was consumed, not enough to get me that drunk, but certainly enough to provide me with residual hangover the next day.

Training Course

Hey, so I haven't written on my blog for a bit, but I'm back now.

I went on a training course in Daejon.  It was an Epik course so there was a variety of other foreign teachers there, probably somewhere close to 250.  Although I did not interact with all of them I was placed in a class with people that live in the same province as me and there were more than 20 people in that class.  I liked the set up because it meant that I could make friends with a bunch of people that I may well see again.

The course started last saturday, so it meant getting up at the ripe time of 6am, which I have to say is a pain in the neck on your day off.  My Principal drove me to Changwon and from there I took a bus along with some other teachers to Daejon.  The bus journey was uneventful, for the most part, but I did have a good time talking to new people. But once we did finally arrive in Daejon the bus broke down, yet not far from where we would be staying. We were forced to wait for another bus of teachers to pull back around and come and get us however, so that was a bit of a pain.

Therefore when we arrived, we were late, so some of our classes were either pushed back or cancelled.  Amusingly there was one of the organisers who had limited vocal power, so she was unable to garner enough attention.  So she asked Tim, a Brit to call out what she was saying, however she was telling us irrelevant stuff and we all burst out laughing at the stuff ups, but she took it personally and took a certain disliking to Tim after that.

We had a chance to settle into our rooms, unfortunately though we had to share, two to a room.  I got a snorer, which proved to be a pain throughout my time there.

However during the course of the week we had 12 hour days, taking in many classes in various things and there were also three classes of Korean, which although was at a lower level than perhaps I required I still found various parts usful.  I would have preferred to have more Korean classes however.  The classes on the whole were pretty good and helpful in places.  Although I am still generally new to teaching, I have at least had some experience so the basic stuff I have already picked up of my own acord.  But to help counteract doing the basic stuff over and over, I was in a class of people where there were only 3 people who had never taught before.  So everybody else had anywhere between 4 months and 8 years of experience teaching in Korea.  So each of our classes were aimed more at allowing people in the class to share their experiences and although I have little to bring to the table I feel any of my criticisms or advice was logical and I'm told also useful.

I cracked wise for much of the week, but people seemed to like me, which is nice.  One person commented on the fact that I was going somewhat over the top on my talking, but to be fair I guess I was just enjoying having other people around me that understand what I'm going on about.  I sort of revelled in it, that's over now.  I'm back in quiet Tongdosa.

During the course we had to do a short version of a lesson, but still prepare a lesson plan for the whole lesson.  Luckily the group I was in picked out the family and Barry already had the partial makings of a lesson that we could use.  We tweaked it and produced some other stuff and then presented it at the end of the week.  It was pretty good and watching other people do theirs game me ideas.  So hopefully we helped one another in that.

Finally, there was the 'Talent Show' by which it was rather a class performance.  All week I had had no interest in the concept or in performing it. However, when it got down to the day to do it I got up on stage with the other people and performed the chacha slide.  Other classes did other things and some of them were really good, but I guess the difference is that our class had the whole class up there, where as the others only used a selection.  Then finally the Epik staff did a dance that they had been working on all week.  It was strange, but it was really good.  I'd like to get a copy of the dance, just to watch it again.

So I have come away from the training course with new ideas and new friends and hopefully both of those will help to make my life in Korea anywhere between tolerable and good.