Blogular updatery

Ok, so this is an attempt to try to update on all the things we did before we actually got online. Loads of stuff happened, and I'm pretty sure it'd be kind of dull to just do a day by day account. But I'm gonna do it anyway! Ha. No I'm not. Just some of it.

So, the first night we went straight out to find some food. But as we arrived in the middle of the national holiday we were a bit limited, so ended up buying a tin of tuna, some pasta and a pasta sauce. Fun! The next day we just wandered about a bit exploring the local area and went for dinner at a restaurant, which may be called Duck and Duck, which had the Korean table barbecue (there seems to be some kind of importance attached to ducks in Korean restaurants. Almost all of the restaurants we've been to have 2 ducks in their window, or on the signs... A quick google search has revealed this - 'Traditional Korean Weddings always include a pair of Korean Wedding Ducks to represent a peaceful marriage with many children and no separations. Mandarin Ducks mate for life, and are revered by the Korean people as symbols of loyalty and fidelity in a marriage. After the marriage, the Wedding Ducks are placed in the home of the newlyweds where they can be easily seen. If the ducks are facing each other, nose to nose, then the marriage is happy. If the ducks are facing away from each other, tail to tail, then the couple is fighting. If a Korean couple is fighting, then one of them will often point to the Wedding Ducks, reminding them both of their peaceful Wedding, and they will stop fighting.' Wow! Not sure what this has to do with restaurants though). We walked into the restaurant and were greeted by all of the very excitable staff. We sat at our table and were given a menu which sadly had no pictures or english writing, but luckily the really helpful waiter quickly realised we were lacking in the Korean language department, and brought out three dishes for us to choose from. We picked one and were soon given a large dish with meat and veg all covered in sauce, along with a bowl of cold bean sprout soup, some kimchi, pickled radish, a small bowl of peeled garlic cloves, some large sesame leaves plus some other bits and pieces. The idea is to cook the meat up yourself, then make little wraps out of everything. Luckily, we already knew this, as we would've been totally baffled! Anyway, the food was really good and really cheap so we left very happy.

The next day we were at work. Jason picked us up and drove us to an Italian restaurant for lunch. His cousin Liam also works at the school and joined us for lunch, so we had a long chat and loads of tasty food, although it did seem a bit strange to be eating Italian food. Turns out we were quite lucky anyway, one of the girls at the school was apparently taken to McDonalds on her first day! We were given a quick tour of the school, introduced to the other teachers and spent a couple of hours sitting in on lessons. Luckily we didn't have to stay for a full day, as we were both still feeling quite jetlagged. Over the next week we gradually went from observing lessons to taking some over. We are now mostly teaching on our own, just being observed every now and again. It's quite fun, the kids are mostly very well behaved and the day passes very fast.

But talking about work is yawnsome. At the next weekend we were shown the way to downtown Gwangju and wandered around the streets looking at all the dressed up Koreans and saw our first examples of a Korean couple dressed in matching clothes - quite a common sight! Weird. We sat in Starbucks for a while people watching and chatting with Jasmin, Liz and Jocelyn, then met up with Sophie, Freya and Mel to go for some food and drinking fun. We wound up at Mike and Dave's Speakeasy, basically a bar started by Canadians for foreign teachers. There was a live band playing a mix of covers and originals which was pretty cool, plus a dj playing all kinds of different western music. We ended up staying until about 3am meeting various other people from all over the place and dancing like fools. Was very very fun. See the drunken looking pics in our album for evidence! I woke up the next day with a hugely swollen elbow, and assumed I must've fallen over and bashed it at some point. But despite the swelling going down quite quickly at first, it's swollen back up this weekend so we're wondering if maybe it's a weird infected bite or something. Hopefully I'm not going to have to have it amputated or anything, that'd be inconvenient. I like having two arms.

Ok, this post is getting long and I want to do other things now. Basically the first 2 weeks of our lives in Korea have been great and filled with copious amounts of good food and fun times. Hopefully this shall continue! Bye!

Mount Mudeung

We had a really nice day today. We got ourselves up and organised and walked the two minutes down the road to the bus stop. Bus 54 is the only bus that we know how to get (we can't read any of the bus stop signs or timetables) as it's the one that goes to downtown Gwangju. One of the teachers at our school told us that she had heard a vague rumour that if you stayed on the bus the whole way, it went to Mt Mudeung. We decided to give it a go and about forty minutes later we were getting off and joining the other Gwangjuites, dressed in their full hiking gear, and heading towards the mountain.

All along the road there were stalls selling hiking gear and picnics consisting mostly of rice and kimchi. At the foot of the mountain we found a big Buddhist temple called Jeungsimsa. You can check out the photos to see how beautiful it is. There weren't many other people around other than a couple of hikers praying in front of the golden Buddha and a monk playing with a stray dog. Tucked away in a corner was a massive bell with a very satisfying ring. When we left the temple there was a guitarist playing on a little stage outside, who surreally started playing Rivers of Babylon and Take Me Home Country Roads. There were also volunteers selling food, so we sat down at a little table and had noodles and Korean pancake (not very easy to eat with chopsticks), served with the mandatory side dish of kimchi.

After lunch we picked a trail at random and hiked up beside a little stream, having to stop to occasionally let Koreans past, who seem to take their hiking very seriously indeed. A few people tried to speak to us on the way, fooled into thinking that we could speak Korean by our ability to say "hello". Everyone is very friendly and I love the fact that they seem to get very excited every time we speak to them, or wave to them, or sometimes even when we just look in their direction. One girl gasped as she walked past, we're not sure why but my theory is that she just couldn't believe how hairy Alan's chin is. 

The bus ride home was also quite entertaining as a drunk/crazy woman got on and started shouting at people, of course we have no idea what she was saying but it certainly seemed to be causing some offense. This evening we used skype for the first time and called England for free... woo! 

Soju and fruit juice

Ok, quick post! So we've now been teaching for two weeks and it's been all manner of fun and hijinks. But right now I just wanted to talk about tonight. We've been out for dinner with some of the other teachers and had a highly tasty pork spine broth. Mmmmmm yummy. The only downer of the meal is finding bits of artery and spinal cord. But it was otherwise very good. Honest.

Then we were hanging out at Jasmin's (American) apartment with Liz (Canadian), Mel (Canadian), Sophie (Kiwi) and Freya (Canadian). I am now the official man-cot (male mascot, duh) of the mostly female teaching group. Woop. Um, so we drank a whole heap of Soju with various fruit juices. We bought lots of Soju last week, tasted some neat and almost spat it right back out, as it's pretty nasty stuff. But with fruit juice it's hard to even tell it's there so it's very easy to drink. Hence I am now feeling a bit drunk, although it doesn't feel like I've drunk anything. Anyway, we played Cranium and chatted and had heaps of fun.

I like it here.

At some point very soon there'll be a proper update of what we've been up to since we've been here, but right now I'm gonna go try to call my parents before I go to bed. Bye!

Alan

Home sweet home

Well… where do I begin?  Sunny old England is all starting to seem like a distant memory already. Having stalked (Ok, I admit that I was the one who did most of the stalking) numerous other people living in Korea, we were somewhat apprehensive about the size of our apartment. The idea of the two of us shuffling around each other in a small box for a year was not too appealing, so we were very relieved when we opened the door to our third floor apartment (which is actually second floor, by proper English flooring standards) and found that we had two small bedrooms as well as a living area and bathroom. It’s pretty nice, despite being covered floor to ceiling (yes, ceiling) in pink wallpaper! We’ve had a few teething problems; firstly our bed kept collapsing onto the floor in the middle of the night which was a bit of a shock, but Alan seems to have fixed that. Our bathroom also takes a bit of getting used to, as the shower drenches the entire room and if we forget to switch the setting back to washbasin after use, we risk being drenched in water, fully dressed, when trying to wash our hands. A lesson that I have had to learn the hard way (twice!) As for the washing  machine, it seems to be very advanced and technical, unfortunately we can’t understand what anything is. I pressed buttons until water came out and the things seem to be clean (just wish I could remember what I did).

We're here! Woop woop hooray!

So! We finally made it to Korea and have now been here a week and a little bit. But before we tell you about how amazing everything is here and all that gubbins, I'm going to tell you about our flight, as it was not as simple as it may seem to get here! Hold your breath for tales of excitement, wonderment and Korean food children!

Alrighty, so our loving parents (and Katy) drove us both to Heathrow on Saturday 13th, meaning that they got to meet for the first time. Considering it was Heathrow, check-in was pretty quick and speedy. Had some food with the families, said final goodbyes, then went through security to wait for our plane. Which is where it all got difficult. We sat next to the screen waiting for our gate to be announced. We waited. Then we waited some more. Then all the flights departing at the same time as ours got announced so got a bit more excited. So we waited some more. But still nothing! So from then on we waited and worried. Then all the flights departing at the same time as ours started doing the last call things, which made us worry a bit more. Anyway, eventually they called our flight, we boarded and ended up departing an hour late for sunny Frankfurt. The flight was only about an hour and a half, but this meant that by the time we arrived, we were too late for check in for our connecting flight to Incheon. Oh no! But! No need for panics, Lufthansa helpfully rebooked us on to a Korean Air flight instead, leaving 2 hours later. So we spent about an hour trying to figure out where we were supposed to go to re-check in (Frankfurt airport is quite nice really, much better than Heathrow, but they still seem to be building it, which was a bit weird when we had to walk through the bit they were building). But we made it to our flight anyway and it was all smiles and happy things.

So! We got on our flight to Incheon, which was hugely undersold so we had 3 seats to ourselves, and could also steal the free bottles of water off all the seats around us. As it was Korean Air, we also got the little touch screen TV things in the back of all the seats, so I watched Be Kind Rewind, In Bruges, The Bank Job and Iron Man (plus a bit of the Forbidden Kingdom which was so bad I had to turn it off), while completely failing to sleep. Fun! Becky unfortunately seemed to get horribly ill and was feeling all wretched so was trying to sleep most of the way there. Anyway, really the best thing for me was the fact that we got our first korean meals. Not that I really know what we were eating, but it was pretty good anyway! There are photos, so when we post the album have a look. It's exciting. While we were flying I kept opening my little window blind thingy to look out and see if I could see anything below, so got to see Russia and China, which was kind of fun. But not as fun as realising we were getting to Korea. Or landing and realising we were actually on Korean soil at last! Customs and luggage were quick and easy, once we'd figured out where we to go (through the section marked 'Foreigners' obviously), so we soon stepped out into a blazing hot Korean morning. Becky bought our bus tickets to Gwangju, which was made very easy by the fact that the girl in the ticket booth spoke perfect English, and very soon after we were on the bus to our new home. The bus seats were huge! Kind of like business class seats. But without the massive expense. As we'd arrived on Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving - described as the worst time of the year to travel in Korea by Lonely Planet), traffic was pretty bad, so it took nearly 6 hours to get to Gwangju - it's normally about 4 hours. We both tried to stay awake and see a bit of Korea, but fell asleep after about an hour or so. There was a toilet break about half way there, which was our first real 'oh my god everyone's Korean here' experience. Also, we didn't know exactly what the bus driver had said about how long we had to stop so, not wanting to end up stranded in the middle of nowhere, didn't really explore the shops etc. Eventually we made it to Gwangju anyway. Our boss, Jason, came to pick us up and take us to our new apartment, showing us the school on the way. Within a few minutes we were carrying our bags to our new home. But I'll let Becky tell you all about that in her next post.

We're here though, and it's amazing.

Photo post! Containing pictures! In photographic format!

Ok! So, here are exciting pictures of us outside the embassy with our visas! Yay! Oops I just deleted me. Gah. Um, well, this computer is being annoying so I'm gonna leave me out of it. Becky thinks her face is some kind of pictorial definition of relief meeting joy in this picture, which is understandable if you've read our updating post and/or are aware of 'The Saga of the Visas of Alan and Becky' (as I would like it be known from now on).

Also, here is a picture of our actual visas as the other pic isn't too clear. And finally the flight details for our um... flights. We're really going! Woop woop!

Hello, Becky here.

Bravo on the blog updating dearest Alan. Summarising the tiresome experiences of the last couple of months must have been almost as painful as living them. However, I feel that I need to add a few words. Our return to London was marvelous not only because Alan got to see Greig (although I'm sure that Greig is marvelous, and I'm not just saying that because I know that he reads our blog), but also because we got to spend the night sleeping with Cina and Hoolie which was lovely. On top of that, the next day we had a nice lunch with Lizzy and said emotional goodbyes (only to see her again the very next day in Birmingham).

I would also like to add that after a little talk with me and my bro, Alan has realised that reading The Long Goodbye, whilst saying painfully drawn-out goodbyes is actually not ironic at all, but in fact rather apt. 

An update blog! Featuring elephants.

Okay! So, it's been a while since there was any updating done. And all manner of thrilling wonderment has occurred. So I'm now going to tell you about it. In blog-ular format.

Right. Um, so... what was the last thing we posted about? Not the music thing, that was pointless. Oh, the apostilling. And kimchi. Or gimchi as it is sometimes known. Ok, well since then we have sent all our documents off to Korea to be approved by the Embassy, which took a week-ish. At which point they told us my degree certificate had to be in a sealed envelope (i.e. in an envelope with the uni seal on it, not an envelope that had been sealed. OBVIOUSLY we sealed the envelope before we sent it, or everything would've fallen out. duh). So I had to rush off and get another copy sealed and resend it. Then, about 10 days later we got our visa application numbers back from our employer, so rushed off to London as quick as our tiny legs would carry us so the Korean Embassy could put pretty stamps in our passports. We were under the impression this would be done in a day, then we'd go straight to some kind of internet-enabled portal and advise Jason he could book us some shiny tickets on one of those winged vehicles. Sadly, the not-that-friendly chap in the Korean Embassy stamped all over our hopes and dreams by declaring that we'd be able to collect our passports in 5 working days. not counting that day. Thanks to the stupid bank holiday this meant we had to go back the following Friday. By which time Jason had gone away for a few days so couldn't book the aforementioned shiny tickets. Booooo! On the plus side, it meant I got to see my friend Greig, which was fun. And we got to go back to Birmingham in order to celebrate the quarter century of Nicky, which was good also.

Anyhoo, Jason has now returned from his... wherever it was he went and booked us flights as of about 3 hours ago! Woop and indeed hooray! Just when we were in the middle of performing an elaborate celebratory song and dance (with a chorus line, dancing elephants and 3 part harmony) Becky burst the brief bubble of joy by noticing that although the flight is booked for Saturday, it is actually booked for Saturday 13th, meaning another 10 days in England! Noooooo! This does mean I get to see my parents again but... my god. I am poor. I haven't been paid since 23rd July! I need to get out there if only to have something to do! More importantly, the flight seems to have been booked in the name of Rebecca Bullard. Not mine obviously. That'd be a serious error. No. It should read Rebecca B-B. This is bad. Becky has spent ages and ages on the phone trying to get this sorted, but it seems Jason will have to cancel the ticket and rebook with the correct name. Damn and indeed blast. So we have to wait until he wakes up and sorts it out before we continue our celebratory dance.

So. In relatively brief detail, that brings you (the reader) up to date in the life of us. And if anyone wants to come visit me in exciting thrilling sunny Bourne over the next week-ish, that'd be just swell.

Right now, I'm going to go finish reading The Long Goodbye. Actually, it never occurred to me when I started reading it, but that's kind of ironic. I mean, I started saying my goodbyes about... oooh 7 weeks ago now. That's a pretty long goodbye. Well, technically it's not, I haven't been saying goodbye that entire time. But y'know... you see what I mean. Shut up.