Business Meetings, Mountain Walking, Bake Sales and Christmas Trees

All manner of excitement has happened since last we posted a proper update. It's hard to know where to start!

A couple of weeks ago our friends at work, Julie and Nicole, sent us all a message on facebook informing us of an important business meeting coming up. It seems that Korean businessmen tend to have their meetings in bars and get well and truly hammered in the process, so the idea was we'd all dress as businessy as possible and go out and lay waste to Gwangju. We had an agenda and all applied formally for positions with 'The Company', and met for pre meeting cheese, biscuits and wine at Julie's apartment. Copious amounts of soju and fruit juice were consumed - by me mostly. We were informed prior to the event that someone was pretty much expected to be extremely drunk before the meeting began, and I felt it was my duty to step up to the task. I succeeded very well. By the time we got in the taxi I was becoming somewhat slurry and feeling a little ill, although I blame the latter on the heat in the taxi. When we made it to our chosen drinking establishment, we wandered in and found a table for all 9 of us. In the process, I was accosted by a 40 year old Korean man who could speak about as much English as I can Korean, who proceeded to hug me and force me to join him and his friend at their table. They gave me some food and wouldn't let me leave for quite sometime, but I eventually managed to escape and join the others. At our table I found an alarming array of soju and fruit juice smoothies being passed around, along with a suprising amount of free chips and a seafood platter which came free with the drinks. From here on my recollection becomes a little hazy, but I distinctly remember making my interview presentation, being bought another jug of soju smoothie by a friendly table of young Koreans, dropping a large prawn on the floor and then discovering that the bill came to about 3000 won each... £1.50-ish. When we left the cold air thankfully sobered me up somewhat as we made our way over to Speakeasy. There we danced around like fools for a while, until I developed an evil case of hiccups and had to go home. All in all, a pretty fun night! It did lead to a Sunday spent mostly sulking about how bad a soju hangover is though.

The following weekend we heard there was a bake/book sale at the foreigner bar to raise money for an orphanage. We walked downtown as it was quite a nice day and eventually arrived at the bar. It was pretty packed out with foreigners (it seems quite weird to see so many non-Korean faces now, I'm so used to being the odd one out!), all scrabbling for exciting food. We bought some shortbread and peanut butter brownies, and some ludicrously cheap and exceptionally well thumbed second hand books - my favourite find is the Bob Dylan Chronicles volume 1 for a mere 2000 won - about £1! It was really nice to see it so busy, especially as we got to see an English girl, Steph, that we met a while back. It's very nice to hear English accents! After that we went for a tasty Italian meal. We found a nice place with a set menu including two pasta dishes, one pizza, a chicken salad, a plate of squid rings, a soft drink each - with free refills - a single dessert between the 4 of us and a weird hot drink claiming to be coffee but that smelt vaguely of cinnamon and tasted like bitter water. Yummy. All this for just 8000 won each... just £4!

The following day we made our third trip to Mudeungsan for a spot of hiking. When we arrived we bumped into one of Becky's private students, Ron. He is a nice kid, but very cheeky and, since discovering we're together, has taken to calling me Mr Brooke. He was much more polite on this occasion, possibly because he was with his father, and offered us some tasty Korean snacks! We decided to take slightly different route through a building site this time, as on our previous hikes we haven't reached anything that could really be called a peak, or found any truly spectacular views, despite the beauty of what we could see. We'd never really been able to break the cover of trees. The new route started off pretty hardcore, but after about 25 minutes of pretty hard going, we started to see some really nice views over the city. It also pretty quickly became much easier going and relaxed. The views just got better and better as we climbed until we eventually reached the real peak and could see over the whole city. We stopped at the top for a while, sitting on a rock to eat some tangerines, before heading back down. Despite our regular photo stops and a lunch break, the whole hike was over in maybe 2.5 hours and with no aches or pains. It was a really nice hike, but from the top we could see that we'd only really conquered a relatively small mountain, and the real challenge is probably about 3 times as long. Another time I think!

Finally, it has become very Christmassy in our little apartment. Thanks are due to my amazing sister for sending us a small Christmas tree and a whole bunch of decorations, and also to both of our wonderful families for sending us copious amounts of exciting looking presents and food. It wouldn't be Christmas without our stockings!

Oh Korea, we love you. Let us count the ways...

Serbis! Whenever you buy anything, you get something else for free. Medicine (free vitamin drinks), cosmetics (free eye cream), bikes (free pump), Alcohol (free food), food (more food), cereal (free tea towel), hair gel (chocolate), Pyjama bottoms (free couple set hats). In special cases, walk down the street (mirrors, candy floss from a mobile phone shop).

 

Eating out is about as cheap as eating in.

People often give us things just because we're different (chestnuts, chewing gum).

People (especially kids) say hello to us everywhere. Small children love trying to chat to us and shouting out their random English phrases. Teenagers will shout at us when they're in packs or just after we've walked past, and then fall into hysterics when we respond. Adults usually restrain themselves from saying anything, and just watch us curiously.

Heated toilet seats. It really is so nice. Ooh and free mouthwash dispensers in restaurant toilets.

 

Condom machine in the hotel room.

Heated floors. Because feet really should get the most heat.

Service bells on the corner of the table in restaurants. No more trying to catch a waiter's attention. It took a little while to build up the courage to ring it for the first time, but now we love it!

Taking shoes off in restaurants. It makes me feel more relaxed and at home when I can sit on the floor and eat with my shoes off.

The food. Shabu Shabu and Gogi Mandu are amazing, as are many other things. Kimchi may not have become our favourite snack still, but there is a lot of tasty goodness about.

A naughty child is one who talks a little louder than you might like, or forgot their homework, rather than one who tried to stab another student.

Everything is available as couple set. Set menus, pyjamas, underwear, gym membership, duck statues... Just recently we've also started seeing couples sharing mittens on 'idiot strings', one mitten each while they held hands with their other hands. It seems to be incredibly special to be a couple in Korea. Although it would be preferred if we were married. Our students seem completely perplexed by the fact that we live together but aren't married.

But sometimes Korea, we find you a little harder to understand...

Supermarkets often seem to be arranged in a random order. When looking for specific biscuits the other day, we eventually found them nestled among the crisps, rather than on the more biscuity shelf in a completely different aisle.

Motorbikes on the pavement and using pedestrian crossings. We can understand that they'd rather not compete with the cars on the road, but it is slightly distressing when they speed towards you on the pavement.

Pedestrian crossings. When the green man shows (after you've waited 15 minutes), don't always walk, because cars will be trying to get across too.

Fighting when we expect to queue. Buying bus tickets can be particularly difficult and old women will shove you with all their might to get there first. I have become rather good at pushing forward to get on the bus now and saving a seat for Alan, who is finding his Britishness a little harder to shake.

Despite the fact that Korean girls wear the shortest skirts (and shorts) known to man - all year round no less - you'll still get disapproving glances for revealing your shoulders in summer. See also the restaurant that gave me the apron to cover my lower back.

Taxi drivers who watch TV. Don't get us wrong, we don't mean they shouldn't be allowed to watch confusing Korean soaps after a hard days work, but while they're driving? Having a TV screen next to the steering wheel seems somewhat dangerous, even if it doubles as a Sat Nav.

The gym's air con isn't switched on ever, even the height of summer (by all accounts, we weren't actually here then, but it was pretty toasty even by the time we got here). Some Koreans even work out in the sauna! On the other hand, windows are left open during snow in order to allow air to circulate through the building.

Unisex toilets, with the urinal located next to the shared sink.

There are loads of other things that fit into both categories, and we've only been here 3 months so far, so this list is sure to keep on growing. This is just a taster!

It's Been A While

We haven't posted in ages, but I just wanted to say we've added a whole bunch of new photo albums today so go look at them! A new post with actual information and exciting things will follow. Soon. Probably.

what's in a name?

An exciting part of teaching in Korea, is that whenever a new student joins a class, we get to give them an English name. Some kids have ended up (not always from our school) with some pretty strange names, as Alan has pointed out. Today was an exciting day, as I got to name my first child. So, TJ you now have a small Korean boy named after you (Tom, really. Thought TJ might be a bit confusing). I promise the first girl will be Katy.

Jeonju-The city of "love"

We fancied another weekend away (one a month just isn't enough) and decided on the town of Jeonju, which was nearly our home at one point. It's only a one and a half hour coach trip from Gwangju (which is merciful, considering my recent tendency for nausea and vomiting!). We'd read about an intriguing motel in the lonely planet with big jacuzzis, so we decided to try and stay in our first Korean "Love Motel", the Mint Motel. We found it pretty easily. It looked fairly harmless from the outside, although not exactly classy. More like something you would find in the cheap bit of Las Vegas, with it's pink paint and palm tree pictures, but we ventured inside nevertheless. The lobby was extremely dark, it had UV lighting and a reception desk with a little opening which I called through. A woman stuck her head round and motioned a sleep sign with her head and hands, to which I nodded. This was quite a relief as we had been wondering how we would explain that we wanted the room for a full night and not just for the hour. Key in hand, we took the lift to the 3rd floor. Our first surprise came when we noticed the book shelf of pornographic videos (and Robocop) available for customers to take into their rooms. A little further on, we found a vending machine full of sex toys. Clearly a place designed for true "love". Our room was actually pretty amazing and didn't feel too seedy once we got past the condom vending machine in the corner, the blue light above the bed, the huge portrait window from the bedroom into the bathroom (complete with naked woman glazing) and the enormous flat-screen TV, which seemed only to show four channels with a choice of porn, cooking, home shopping, or more porn. As promised in the lonely planet it was very clean and there was a huge jacuzzi in the bathroom, so we were happy.

Hotel sorted, we went to explore Jeonju and managed to get a little bit lost in the process. First impressions were not wonderful as we were wandering through the outskirts and the streets were definitely somewhat more pungent than in Gwangju. We passed a couple of huge and gaudy wedding halls on the way, and stopped to watch as some of the couples came out in their hanbok (traditional Korean dress). When we eventually found the downtown area, it was nice, although very similar to Gwangju, except for the bizarre light canopy running above the main shopping street. We passed through, following signs to the hanok (traditional Korean building) village. The hanok village was beautiful, made up of genuinely old buildings and beautifully built imitations. In the centre there was an area where some of the buildings were shown as a museum, but for streets and streets around, there were others in use as shops (some with lovely craft gifts), restaurants and tea shops. In amongst these buildings was a beautiful, red brick, Catholic church, which was built by Italian missionaries on a spot where Korean catholics were executed. 

One of the greatest discoveries of the weekend was down a little side street in the hanok village, where we found a small restaurant selling curry. There was no menu and just two options; hot curry, or mild curry. We decided it was best to go for the mild in a country where they have kimchi for breakfast. It was a wonderfully  quirky little place, the food was delicious and we even got handmade banana lassi for pudding. All for about £2.50. Lovely. After dinner we found a funny little bar where we had a beer before heading back to our love motel.

The next morning we left the hotel (without ever having seen another guest) and did a bit more exploring in Jeonju, a little bit of Christmas shopping, eating a semi Italian lunch (we realised last night that we have only eaten one meal out since getting here, that wasn't served with kimchi. Sometimes I really enjoy it) before heading back to Gwangju. 

Almost forgot. We witnessed what we assume is another korean tradition this weekend. We saw two separate wedding cars, where the bride was sitting in the open boot, leading the groom along with ribbon behind the car. Very funny

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

So, in the last couple of weeks there's been a pretty huge temperature drop here. This reached exciting new levels yesterday afternoon when it started snowing during our first lesson of the day. This caused huge excitement for my students, with me having to physically tear them away from the window and put them back in their seats. It stopped pretty quickly and started being all rainy instead, but overnight it snowed heavy and hard. We awoke this morning to incredibly bright light coming through the windows and braved the cold to open the windows and take a peek outside. The roads were pretty much snow free but everything else had a nice healthy covering, so I went for a quick walk taking some snaps in the immediate area around the apartment.

Although it is very cold here now and our school is somewhat lacking in heating (in that it has none at all - luckily some heaters are now on order so we won't have to teach in hats and gloves), I have to say it's much less depressing getting into winter here than at home. It's still sunny with blue skies and a happy lack of miserable clouds and biting winds - so far at least. If it stays like this, I'll be pretty happy. Especially as I managed to buy a new winter coat, scarf and hat for 23,000 won - about £11.50! Happy times. I'm praying for much more snow anyway. It makes me very happy!

On a thoroughly unrelated note, Becky's favourite Korean advert just came on tv. It features a nice slow motion shot of a young child running towards his mothers open arms and bouncing his head off her chest, before cutting to the product on sale... Car air bags! Ace.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

One of the greatest pleasures of teaching here, is the funny things that the children say to us. Sometimes, they say such lovely things. A little girl told me last week that her mum says I'm very beautiful, although this was somewhat overshadowed when she told Alan that her mother had called him "handsome, like a God". They often tell me that Mr. Armstrong loves me, as if it's a shocking revelation, which is also pretty funny.

Some things that we tell them, also seem very funny to them. Alan tried to explain to his students that his mother was called Mrs. Armsrong, and that in fact his entire family shared the name. They found this very funny and probably still think that it was just a big joke! When I told one of my classes that I was from England, they looked confused "teacher? English in England?", meaning, do they speak English in England? When I said "I'm from England. I am ENGLISH", they found this hilarious, and started pointing at where it said "English" on the front of their exercise books, and saying "same same". I then had to explain that the fact that the language they learn and the name of my nationality are the same, is more than just a strange coincidence. I must confess that I made a big X with my arms and said "English, not from Canada, not from USA. English from England". I don't feel too bad though, because apparently Alan has also demonstrated this point on the board. It seems necessary, otherwise they are concerned that their teachers may not atually know how to speak English (especially when we accidentally write 'colour' rather than 'color' on the board).

At other times the things they say are just wierd. One of my students touched the moles on my arm, and asked me in wonder what they were. Alan's students seem mostly to be completely obssessed with his beard, oh and one class went through a stage of constantly calling him red panties, because on one ocassion when he lifted his arm to write on the board, they caught a glimpse of the red band at the top of his underwear. This continued until, one day, having had just about enough Alan came into class and threatened anyone who mentioned the nickname with 'no goodbye' (what we call detention).

Although still funny, some of the other things we hear are pretty tactless. I have been asked on a couple of occassions (when wearing baggy clothing, may I add) whether I have a baby in my belly, and once when I said no, they kindly told me that I was looking fat. The other day one of my sweetest students looked at me seriously and asked me why it was so black around my eyes. One of Alan's students informed him that he looks very old and now some of them have started calling him Grandfather teacher (although he claims that this is only because of the beard).

This very frank attitude to appearance is not always limited to the children. Our experience so far has only been positive, but there are lots of stories of others being refused to try on clothing because they are "very big". The funniest thing I've heard, was from an English girl we know, who works in a state school. When she met the director of education for the area, he asked her if she was pregnant. When she (slightly put out) informed him that she wasn't, he insisted, saying "are you sure? I think you should go to the hospital and check".

Hike Hike Hike

Last week we went to Wolchulsan, a mountain about an hour and a half away from Gwangju, with Mel and Jocelyn. We'd heard all manner of different stories about how long it could take (anywhere between 4 and 8 hours depending on who you ask...) and how tiring it could be, so we decided to leave bright and early to ensure we didn't end up stranded up there in the dark. We arrived at the base of the mountain at about 9am and were greeted by a helpful man who, using a smattering of English and lots of gesturing, explained that there were two routes. We could go up to the Cloud Bridge (large suspension bridge) and then on to the main peak, before heading back to the start on a circular route, which would take 4 hours total. Or, instead of coming back, we could do the full 6 hour route across to a big temple, passing an 8 metre high Buddha along the way, then stay in a minbak overnight or get a taxi from the end back to the bus station. Hedging our bets somewhat, we decided to head to the top and see how we felt when we got there.

The hike started quite steeply, and we quickly arrived at metal steps which ended up making up maybe 80% of the way up. This may make it sound easy, but the steps were terrifyingly steep in places and there were points where they were either very far apart or very close together, making the walk really awkward. At other points of the cllimb were knotted ropes tied to the rocks, where we had to pull ourselves up, almost like actual rock climbing! Helpful signs along the way kept shocking us with the distance remaning until we reached the top, as well as constantly being convinced we could see the peak, only to turn a corner and find out that we had to go back down another 100 metres to reach the next upward stretch! The scenery all the way up was incredible, despite it being quite a misty morning when we started. The weather cleared gradually as we got closer to the top and gave us amazing views across the surrounding countryside. Also, as we're still in the midst of autumn (I'm trying to remember to say fall so as to not confuse our students or the other teachers, but I refuse to write it. Must hold on to my Englishness!) here, the colours of the leaves were spectacular. This lead to constant and very welcome photo stops along the whole route.

We eventually reached the top just short of the two hour estimate given by the helpful chap mentioned above and settled down with the soju drinking, kimbap eating Korean hikers to have our lunch and enjoy the view. After some discussion we decided that although we were still feeling pretty good, we may not be up to another four hours, so took the easier option of heading down. Sadly, after about 30 minutes of descent, we started to wonder if we might've been better of going for the longer route. The 6 hour route would've led us across the tops of the mountains and certainly would've required some up and downing. But frankly, it seems like that would've been a breeze in comparison with the way down. Gone were the terrifying steps and ropes, only to be replaced with a random assortment of variously sized rocks in no discernible pattern. There were many places I had to really stretch or jump to get between some rocks, grabbing hold of the nearest branch to maintain some semblence of balance. Gone too, were the majority of the views, although the colours of the leaves continued to amaze us. The helpful signs suddenly became hugely depressing as they appeared to show little to no difference in distance remaning. Despite all this, we reached the bottom before the predicted four hours were up and were thus very pleased. It was an incredible hike and the views more than made up for any whinges. We are already planning to do it again in the spring. Next time we may actually bother to do some pre-hike stretching, as both Becky and I were suffering somewhat in the leg department. In fact, my knee has been highly troublesome for most of the 7 days since we returned. Very annoying, but thankfully it now seems to be all better.

Also worth mentioning is the park we passed at the bottom, containing a great many bizarre statues with an alarming array of genitalia on display. Although in many ways Korea seems very conservative, they do seem to go in for some truly suprising exceptions to the rule. It certainly bodes well for our Christmas trip to the somewhat infamous Penis Park...

 

Updatery!

Last Sunday we went for a second trip to Mudeungsan (the mountain in Gwangju). We went for lunch at the base of the mountain in one of the many small restaurants available. We sat down and quickly realised there were no helpful pictures of what we could be ordering, so accepted the first thing we were offered. Quite quickly we were brought an alarming array of small dishes with all manner of different things in them, some rice, a large bowl of soup, a plate of leafy veg and some incredibly fatty meat. We didn't really know what to do with it all, but managed to pick up some pointers from the other diners and a friendly Korean chap at the table next to us. Sadly I have to confess that it was the first meal that I haven't enjoyed since we got here. But it's all part of the fun really and I suppose considering the way we order our meals we're doing pretty well!We went for a walk after the food in an effort to find an art gallery and a tea plantation we'd read about. The art gallery was pretty easy to find, about 10 minutes up the hill. We didn't actually go in, as we didn't have our Biennale tickets and didn't want to pay the entrance fee, but there's some other free things connected to it, including the house a Korean artist used to live in for about 20 years, a video installation and some other bits and pieces. There wasn't really much there, but it was quite nice. We did encounter a small watermill that was being spun by 2 small Korean children, perched precariously on the edge of a shaking wooden box over a bit of a sharp fall, as their mother looked on! Sadly we didn't make it to the tea plantation despite being able to see it in the distance, but we did come across another pretty spectacular Buddhist temple where we might be able to go for a templestay at some point.

After our trip we concluded that our trainers aren't up to the job, mostly because we could feel all the rocks through the soles! So today we bought hiking boots. We're going on a long hike this weekend so decided it was time for proper boots. Korean hikers seem to take it very seriously indeed, they're all kitted out in special hiking gear from head to toe, so we also wanted to make sure we fit in properly! Actually, one pretty amazing thing about our life in Korea so far is the fact that we were paid 2 weeks wages at the start of October, which we've lived on for the last 5 weeks. From that money we've paid for our trips to Wando and Namhae, as well as all our food (we eat in restaurants for more than half our evening meals every week, and quite often for lunch too), our bikes, Biennale season tickets, some clothes, bits and pieces for the house, walking boots and a few nights of drinking. And we're not in anyway struggling now! Bodes well for our potential savings. As long as the exchange rate doesn't get any worse for the Won - at the moment it's going up and down like a yo-yo.

Finally, I'm sure anyone reading this will have noticed I have shaved off my beard. This is in no way connected to the note I was given by one of my students suggesting I remove it! In any case, I've terrified myself with the sight of my hairless chin and shall probably grow the beard back as soon as phsyically possible.

Ghostly Gwangju

We'd been looking forward to Halloween for a while as it meant a day without teaching and an early finish... almost like a three day weekend. Or so we thought.

Our hopes were slightly quashed when we were told that we should come into school an hour early and lug furniture around in preparation for the party, oh and that we should also make at least ten decorations each for the following day. On Friday morning Alan and I got up and covered ourselves in make up. Alan was looking pretty creepy as the joker and I had great hopes that he might walk away with the best costume prize. All the teachers decided to walk to school together for moral support and just to make the Koreans think that white people are a little bit stranger (they're not really familiar with halloween here). The reactions we got were pretty funny. Some people pointed and laughed, some looked completely stunned and others just did their best to pretend that they hadn't noticed.

At school we were each put in charge of a game room. I had the musical chairs room and Alan had some kind of put your hand in the bag and identify the disgusting thing (is it a heart or eyeballs? No, it's a tomato!) room. We had a different party every hour, for four hours and it was actually a lot of fun, although the last set of kids may have had a slightly less enthusiastic group of teachers than the first.

At the end of the evening, we all had to vote for the best teacher's costume and there ended up being six prizes (far more than expected) cash prizes! I got fourth place (70,000 Won) and Alan got second (100,000), so between us we got about £80. A very nice little bonus. We did get to leave school early, so we headed to the pork bone soup restaurant where we got even more attention and scared a few kids (whose parents kept trying to force them to come and get pictures with us. After dinner we went to a bar near our apartment and spent the evening chatting.

My New Look

All I need now is a Harley.

The Village Bikes

We've bought bikes! Yay! They're pretty cheap but already they're proving to be worthwhile purchases. Straight after buying them yesterday, we rode down to the river that runs through the middle of the city. There're a fair amount of cycle paths about, which is handy as the roads are terrifying and full of crazy drivers. But the path running alongside the river is perfect for riding. A lot of it is freshly laid and nice and smooth. Anyway, we decided to ride around a bit with the vague idea of exploring somewhere new and maybe visiting the May 18th memorial park (May 18th is the date of a huge public uprising which is pretty legendary. Look it up!). So we headed off along the path. The map we have is a little sketchy on detail, not helped by the fact that most streets don't have any names at all, and anything that does have a name is obviously in Korean. So we took what we thought was the correct exit ramp and went up into a ludicrous traffic jam with 3 Korean policemen attempting to direct cars with random whistle blowing and arm waving. We decided it was walking time so dismounted and ducked off the busy road onto a much smaller street which turned out to be the start of a huge market.

Now, although being in Gwangju is very different to being somewhere like... Birmingham, it's not much like a lot of Asia (or so I'm told) as it is very developed, the streets are pretty clean, everywhere doesn't smell of sewage and it's not really a poor country. Particularly where we live, in MaeGok Dong. But this market was like plunging into a different world. Everything seemed very crammed in, the smells of different herbs, spices, vegetables and caged animals mixed everywhere and we got stared at more than anywhere we've been yet. It was ace! Loads of older Korean women were saying hello and waving at us, which is kind of unusual. It tends to just be the kids that get excited, the adults tend to ignore us or stare silently! I was a little overawed and pushing my bike so didn't take many pictures, damn me. But we will be returning sans bikes at some point so will soon be able to display the aceness to the world. We wandered through looking at endless stalls (by stalls I mean women sitting on the floor with food laid out on blankets and in baskets) of veg, fish and caged chickens for a while until we reached a busy road. We then decided it was time we got back to looking for the Memorial Park so hopped back on our bikes and headed up the hill. After a few minutes we started to get a little puzzled by the road signs as they all seemed to be directing us to things that should be a long way away and not to things that should be quite close. Eventually it dawned on us that we had somehow managed to ride the totally opposite direction down the river so were nowhere near the Memorial Park. Oops. It was a huge amount of fun anyway and I'm looking forward to doing lots more of bike related exploration in the future. Also anyone that comes to visit us can use our lovely bikes to get around (as long as they're very careful with them. Becky is insisting that we name them, so by the time we have visitors they will be like children. But less noisy and demanding. And easier to use for transportation)!

Today we are somewhat hungover as we had an unplanned, but very comical, night out last night. We got a little carried away in drinking games and got peer pressured into going to Speakeasy, so headed out with everyone else at about 12.30. We only ended up staying in Speakeasy for a couple of hours cos the music was a bit rubbish, so Nicole suggested we relocate to a Nori-Bang (karaoke room). This was our first experience of Korean karaoke and was kinda weird but fun. We had our own room with a bank of TV screens and lists of thankfully English tunes to choose from. For some totally unknown reason I ended up doing a lot of singing. Apologies to all who attended. It's a weird experience, as you're allowed to take in your own drink and food and stay pretty much as long as you want. I think the room was hired by time periods, but I'm not sure how long those periods were. We stayed for 3 of them anyway and left at around 6am, all sung out. I found out later that we were actually in a Nori-Bang with 'extras' in the form of... um, nice young ladies to keep you company. For money. Interesting! This may explain why I was approached by a friendly Korean girl on my way back from the toilet to our room. I didn't understand a word she said of course, so maybe she was just asking me the time or something. But I'd rather believe that I've had my first ever proposition by a lady of the night! Fun times.

Other exciting news - as well as Liz, Ellie and Amy having booked tickets to come abuse our hospitality at Christmas, Vicky and Dom are supposed to be booking their tickets tomorrow. Also our parents and my cousin Mark are getting their visiting plans in order, Nick and Nat are entertaining the possibility of working out here in the midst of their traveling extravaganza and Katy and Andrew are contemplating a visit as well I understand! Highly pleasing all round. Anyone else who wishes to join us is more than welcome! Specifically Ann-Marie and TJ would be nice.

Ooh, finally, this is a picture of one of my favourite students, Billy (almost all our students are given English names by the teachers here, often very strange names. In my classes I have a Lion, a Hunter and an unfortunate boy named Louise. Also I have a Steve who was known as Rose at his previous Hogwan). I have a one on one lesson with him twice a week, and he's very good fun. I have taught him to play shove ha'penny, and he brings me ice cream. Anyway, I told him I was going to put him on the internet and make him famous, so... here he is.

Bratwurst and Kimchi

We've been here for five and a half weeks and still having an amazing time. There are so many things we want to do, there's never a dull moment. Sometimes it's a bit daunting trying to pick the way to spend a weekend, so we were pretty grateful last weekend when that decision was made for us. Mike and his wife Cecelia, had plans to go and join a group of friends on Namhae and invited us to come along. It meant getting up at six on Saturday morning but turned out to be well worth it.

The journey started pretty eventfully with an interesting taxi driver who spoke pretty great English. We were sharing a taxi with Sophie and Freya, so first of all the driver seemed pretty impressed that Alan had three women, he got more and more manic and excited throughout the jouney, also talking to us in arabic. Like all the other friendly people we seem to meet, he handed out chestnuts for us to eat on the journey.

We had to get two coaches to the island which is connected to the mainland by an amazing bridge (like a small replica of the Golden Gate bridge). When we got to Namhae we had to wait for some others to arrive so we could get taxis, which was fine as we sat in the blazing sun eating chestnuts given to us by a friendly old lady. We got in a taxi and drove away to the middle of nowhere along steep winding roads, past garlic world and other exciting places. Then we arrived at the German village where we were staying, yes that's right German village. Tucked away among the hills on this little island, with a view of the sea, is a German village, complete with terra-cotta  roofs, wooden paneling and potted geraniums. It was all very surreal and we were staying in an amazing house right at the top of the hill. The place was made even more surreal when we knocked on a neighbour's door to buy Bratwurst and were greeted by an old german man and his German speaking, Korean wife. Apparently a lot of Korean women went to work as nurses in Germany and came back to Korea with their German husbands to form this village. 

After a lot of introductions and a bit of lunch on our terrace, we headed down the hill to the sea for a dip (a walk that was much easier going, than coming back)We found a stony beach and probably to the shock of any Korean watching, went swimming in the middle of October. The water was actually quite warm and it was such a hot day that we dried out pretty quickly. Ha ha, swimming and sunbathing in October!

Back at the house, we were in time for the long anticipated bean bag tournament. This is a game that involves trying to throw bean bags onto a wooden platform, or ideally into the hole in the middle. Teams of two were picked at random, which was a good thing for us novices as we were paired off with some slightly more experienced team mates. Unfortunately, Alan was knocked out in the first round, but me and my partner (who probably had a bit more to do with it than me), made it to the finals, but unfortunately didn't get the 60,000 cash prize. The rest of the evening was spent eating, drinking and playing cards ... lovely. 

As much as we would all have liked to stay, the next morning, it was back on the buses and home to Gwangju. We were back quite early, so wandered down to the Biennale park for the final day of the Kimchi festival. Really, quite a big festival all dedicated to the nation's biggest love. There was stand after stand of Kimchi sellers for tasting, but unfortunately our tastebuds haven't quite developed the ability to distinguish between the different tastes under the spice. We also got to see some traditional Korean drumming, and some dreadlocked Koreans playing instruments made from vegetables. 

The reason I have had time to write this morning is that it's raining outside so we have decided to stay in. We might also do a bit of work on our Hangul (Korean) reading.  I think this is worth mentioning, as we have seen so little rain since we've been here that it has come as a surprise. Maybe this is the end of the hot days, I hope not, but I suppose winter has to start sometime.

Konglish

So Becky and I were just doing a bit of research into plans for our Christmas break with Liz, Amy and Ellie when we stumbled upon a site featuring Konglish. This is a term for English words which have been adapted and adopted into Korean. Some of them are kinda comedy...

kuh-pul-seh-teu (커플세트; "couple set") - matching clothing worn by a young couple on a date.

bu-king (부킹; "booking") - the process whereby a group of Korean friends of one sex is introduced to a group of Korean friends of the opposite sex. This activity only occurs in night clubs and is sanctioned and run by the night club. Often a fee is required for booking.

pu-rin-teu (프린트; "print") - Konglish for Xerox photocopying.

But the best one is only really funny because the youngest students at our school start in classes called Magic Time. So imagine our suprise to see the following phrase...

meh-jeek-ta-eem (매직타임 "Magic Time") - when a woman is menstruating

Hmm. I wonder if our boss is aware of this...

Tiredness Kills!

So... my post from last night is somewhat rubbish and a little poorly typed. For this I send endless apologies. Sorry.

Big Trouble In Little Gwangju

There isn't really any trouble in Gwangju. And Gwangju isn't little. I just felt like referencing Kurt Russell.

Um. So, haven't updated since the Wando info. But fun things have happened, so here be updatery. Last weekend was good, we had a few of the other teachers over for drinking fun and were up until about 4.30 just chatting and listening to music etc last Friday, which was cool. Then Saturday (after Becky impressively made it to the gym in the morning) we went into Downtown Gwangju where all the shopping fun is. There was some kind of festival taking place, with scarily young girls doing inappropriate dances in scary outfits and makeup on a little stage, people in costume and on stilts parading around, bands playing, lots of K-Pop and all manner of strangeness. Ace. We went home about 8pm, had a bit of a snooze to refresh, then went drinking again. After a few drinks at Jasmin's place, we went back downtown to a Turkish bar - basically there were cushions everywhere and lots of curtains. No Turks as far as I could see, but it was fun anyway. Then at about 1.30am onto Speakeasy for dancing and giggles. I spent a lot of the night laughing as the girls tried to wriggle away from various slight weird drunk men - particularly starey-intense-dude who was too weird for words. Much drinking and dancing. We left there about 4.30 (I think) and headed to Soul Train. I was kind of excited about the prospect of listening to and dancing to some soul, but when we got there it turned out they weren't playing soul at all. Not even R&B. It sounded more like Travis. Weird. Anyway, we only stayed for about 20 minutes before deciding maybe it was time to bed.

The next day we struggled out of bed in the early afternoon and made our way to Chosun University where the GIC put on an International festival every year. This basically consisted of a whole bunch of food stalls and a stage with talent show and entertainment. There were a few other bits but that was the interesting stuff. The food was ace, although inexplicably we had to buy food vouchers - a 5000 won note got you a 5000 won food voucher. Can't quite figure out why this was, it seemed like it would've been easier to use real money, but I'm sure there was logic in there somewhere. Anyway, there was loads of African, Indonesian, Chinese, Nepali, Indian, Philippino and Mexican (I feel like I'm missing something out... hmmm. Oh, western food was represented by crepes. Seemed weird to me.) food, which we sampled as much of as was physically possible. African was the best for me, especially as we got a whole plateful for about 50p - pretty good value. It was also Indonesia Day, so Indonesia was very well represented with dancers and singers galore. After a while we decided to rest our bloated stomachs and watch the talent show. Between acts they started announcing winners of the raffle - our little group managed to win 4 tickets to the Biennale, about 8 free coffee vouchers and a new Sony Cybershot camera! Sadly the camera didn't come to me as Sophie had the winning ticket. This is especially unfortunate as my camera seems to be a little unwell at the moment. Bugger. Hopefully it's just a temporary setback. Um... Yeah, so eventually we headed back home for more sleepings.

This week has been officially a month since we arrived, fun times! Feel pretty settled now, and more comfortable with the more crazy things Korea has to offer. Like people riding their mopeds on the pavement through busy streets and thrill seeking taxis drivers running red lights. And being given candy floss by a lady from a phone shop. But it was still highly disconcerting a couple of days ago to hear an air raid siren going off shortly after we arrived at school. It seems every so often they have a drill just in case Kim Jong Il goes crazier and sends some planes over the border to attack us. Apparently all we're expected to do is go inside the nearest building. I guess Korean buildings must be designed to withstand explosions! Who needs bomb shelters eh? Also, the creative mangling of the English language will be forever entertaining.

Anyway, I'm going to go to bed now. Becky's laptop is still set to English time, but I think's silly o'clock. now. Gnight!

Almost forgot!

While we were at the pebbly beach and exploring the little village, we stumbled upon a chicken pen containing a frankly hideous looking freak of nature, which I immediately named Cat-Rabbit. This is due to the fact that it looked like the unfortunate offspring of a cat and a rabbit. I took many pictures of it and became quickly attached to it, especially as it seemed to be very friendly and desperate for attention (not water or food as Becky insisted. It wanted love!). Please see below pictures of the unfortunate beast. If anyone wants to donate money to my new charity dedicated to saving the poor Cat-Rabbit please send cheques made payable to Alan Armstrong.

ps If you look at these pictures and think 'That's not a Cat-Rabbit, that's a fluffy guinea pig' or something, please keep it to yourself. You'll spoil my fun. Also my new theme tune for Cat-Rabbit won't be as useful. And I'll have to cancel my order for 500 Cat-Rabbit t-shirts.