new camera, new news.

Hi,

We are off to Japan on Saturday, so before I go I thought I would do a wee update on what's been happening in the last couple of weeks. Not any major adventures due to an attempt to cut back on the spending in preparation for Japan, but still some bits and pieces which may be of interest! I will just reel them off as they come into my head!

I had my first Korean cinema experience a couple of weeks ago. Myself, Neil, and few Irish friends went to see "The Mist" in CGV (the equivalant to Odeon or Cineworld in Korea). A truly awful film, but it was still interesting to see what a cinema in Korea is like. And the answer? Well it's pretty much the same as in the UK, but with a couple of better things. Firstly, food is much much cheaper, and second, you only get a couple of adverts and trailers before the film starts. I ended up going again with a couple of my co-teachers last week to see Sweeney Todd, a much better film. And in case you are wondering, they only put Korean subtitles up, not dubbing!

My predecessor Euan is back in Korea teaching at Incheon's biggest (and only?) University so a couple of weekends ago I met him and he took me on a wee tour of the campus. It is the winter vacation so the place was pretty dead but it was interesting to see what a university here is like. Apparantly the university was part financed by Korean Air so there were lots of airplanes dotted around, including a full size Boeing 727 or something. Pretty impressive......I have no idea how they got it there! Although I had bought my camera I forgot to take it so I don't have any shots, but i do have some of other things (see below).

So yes, I have finally got round to buying a decent camera. It is a Fujifilm 9 mega pixel job, a wee bit chunky but I am very happy with it so far. It is very easy to use, the picture quality is good and the PC software is child's play. I ended up buying it from E-Mart, partly due to it being a good deal (after discount, about £65) but also they give a year warranty and you can see the price, you don't have to ask as you do in Yongsan or some of the other markets.

So here are some of the shots from the new beast. I will do a bit of explaining after each.

Myself and one the teachers (Johnny) at Nam-Dong. His English is very good.

Esther and I at Nam-Dong. Her English is not as good, but better than my Korean! I look a bit smug....not the best look.

First attempt at a night shot. Not the best. This is the big building at Bupyeong station. Outback is a Australian themed steakhouse, which does pricey but very tasty steaks and pasta.

Woodstock, one of our regular watering holes. What you see in this photo is pretty much the whole bar. The toilet is round to the right, and I am standing pretty much in the doorway. It is a cosy place! Good music though.

Neil, Angel (the barmaid and co-owner of Woodstock) and I.

Yesterday I went to my headteacher at In-Dong's housewarming dinner. It was interesting to see the inside of somebody's Korean house, although she was still unpacking so it is not quite a "proper" Korean house yet. All the teachers from In-Dong were there, as well as two of the teacher's sons. They were both really cool (as most small Korean kids are). Here are a couple of photos of them and the rest of the night.

The table set for dinner. Keep an eye on the number of dishes on the table in the following photos. The wee guy (Sunny's son) is, I think, pointing at the set of chopsticks and spoon at the end of the table because they were gold and the other ones are silver. He is 3 I think. He can already count to 10 in ENGLISH. Impressive. Well I thought so.

Sunny cooking up Pajeom. They are a sort of a cross between a pancake and a pizza, but more like a savoury pancake. These ones had seafood in them. Yummy.

More and more! The plates with the black and white things are made from rice and have a sweet filling. I have no idea what to compare them to. There is nothing like them back home.

The meal underway. Dinna (headteacher) is at back right, with Yogi in front of her. What looks like a bottle of Coke next to her is actually a bottle of what I can only describe as being similar to Buckfast, but a bit better. You all have a shot glass, and you sort of alternate between shotting it and sipping. You never fill your own glass, always fill other people's around you if you see they are nearly empty, and always accept your drink by holding your glass with two hands. However, the more drink gets consumed, the more these rules are ignored!

Me with the boys. Yogi's son (on right) was a bit shy at first but once he realised he could get away with attacking me with a plastic sword and I pretended to die we were best mates. This was taken with the self-timer on the camera but it took many attempts before I got this shot as they kept running over and moving it.

So there we are. Everything else is just moving along as usual, I am being kept busy with my three-school schedule, trying to make it to the gym, the occasional visit to E-Mart to buy corn flakes and cheese and having a few beers and games of pool with Neil and many other folks. Life is good, but it will be nice to have a wee holiday and see a different part of the world in Japan.

Last, but definately not least, I have some great news in that mum has said she is coming over to visit for 10 days at the end of March. I already have a couple of days booked off and will get a couple more, it will be SO nice to have her here and show here the sights, my schools, neighbourhood and give her a chance to see what it's like to live here. If anyone else fancies a trip to the crazy land of Korea, just let me know. I'll get the Kimchi and Soju ready!

Snow

We had our first proper snowfall here on Friday, and given the fact that there was never very much snow on Iona (apart from the winter of 95'.....what a couple of weeks....Rocky and Smooth anyone?) I made sure I got out to throw a few snowballs and mess about like a big kid. I had a bit of break at school in the afternoon so me, Paris and Yogi (their English names) went down to the elementary school opposite the academy to see some of the kids. Here are the ladies setting off.

As soon as I arrived I was duly pelted with snowballs. Fair enough, I am a teacher, and I am Western. I tried to fight back but it was me against 20 kids so snow ended up getting pretty much everywhere! Here are a couple of pictures of the fun.

Poor Jerry on the right was on the recieving end of a snowball to the nether regions in this one. Nasty!

Probably my favourite photo in Korea so far. Sean had stuffed some snow behind his glasses, so I thought I'd get a funny photo. Meanwhile, someone in the background saw the opportunity and hurled a snowball our way. I love the mid-throw pose, and the snowball coming towards us. It's amazing what a battered up old Nokia cameraphone can get!

We then made what could be the world's worst snowman. Here he is:

I put my hat on to keep his head "warm", used two 100 Won coins for eyes, a 10 Won coin for the nose, and my gym membership card for the mouth. We also got a couple of twigs for arms but as you can see they were a bit long.............. Immediately after this photo was taken the poor guy was set upon by several children and reduced to a pile of handy sized snowballs.

After a bit more snowfighting and an attempt at a game of football (I only managed to hit the post) we headed back to the academy to warm up. Here is us crossing the road:

It was a brilliant afternoon. I am so glad I got to enjoy a bit of the snow and also spend a bit of time with some of the kids outside of the classroom. We had a quiet weekend, and today I was back at work. I am now doing Monday and Wednesday at In-Dong (10am-6pm), Tuesday and Thursday at Nam Dong (2pm-9pm) and on Fridays I am moving to a new school that my director has just opened (2pm-9pm). It will be good because the school is brand new and there is another Western teacher there, but it means I finish later on a Friday and I don't get to be at In-Dong as often. I like the staff there, we get on really well, so I hope that continues even though I won't be seeing them as often.

Some other news of note, myself and Neil have booked flights to Osaka in Japan. We fly out with Asiana on the 2nd of February and are there for 6 nights, coming back on the 8th. We havn't sorted any accomodation yet, but i'm keen to spend at least 1 night in a capsule hotel. So until then, I'm going to take it easy spending wise so I can enjoy myself there, as Japan is a bit more expensive than Korea.

Right, I'm away to watch Deadliest Catch. Big fan these days!

Love, Neil

New Year

Hello,

As promised (although somewhat delayed) here is an account of how I spent New Year over here.

So I had managed to get Hogmanay off, although everyone else ended up taking it off in my school too, which was nice, although I feel I may have sacrificed one of my coveted 5 "winter" days of holiday for nothing. I started the day late, probably rising around 2 in my apartment, and spoke to Canadian Colin and Neil about our plans for the night. We decided to start things off at mine with a few beers so the boys headed around at 6ish and we got stuck into a few OB's (my favourite local lager). Here's a pic of the lads.

I got the kilt on the go and we headed out into the night. I had made the journey into Seoul once before in my kilt for the Scotland game in November, so I was ready for the inevitable stares on the subway. And stare they did. When we got off at City Hall in Seoul, I was left on my own for 5 mins while the boys went for a pee, and the interest reached fever pitch. Lots of folk started taking photos......which is O.K. a couple of times but I felt a bit like Britney Spears, and I didn't want to end up in the same state as her so I started taking photos of the people who were taking photos of me. That soon scared them off. Here is a video I took whilst in the subway station.........

Once the boys had finished spending pennies we headed down towards Bosin-Gak, which is the focal point of the New Year celebrations in Seoul. It is basically a massive bell that dates from the 15th century, and nowadays is only struck once a year, at New Year. It was only around 10pm at this point, so we ducked into a bar for a few beers until around 11:30 and then headed out into the crowds. There were a lot of folk, not quite on the same scale as the Edinburgh Street Party but still pretty impressive. There were police EVERYWHERE, although they didn't really seem to be bothered. I asked one if i could take my (plastic) bottle of beer in with me, he said "No" but then I walked on anyway and nobody said anything about it for the rest of the night. That would not happen back home. Another thing that would not happen is the amount of fireworks being let off. You could buy these long tubes for 50p which then let off about 6 or 7 fireworks (i suppose they are like Roman Candles, although i'm not up on my firework types). I bought one after the Bells, it was quite fun to let off but if you aimed it at someone it could do some serious damage. Health and safety back home would have a fit!

We squeezed our way to reasonably close to the front of the crowd and got chatting to some Koreans (one of whom's birthday it was....they had brought a cake into the crowd.....madness) and waited...........

At midnight itself everybody went mental (but kind of just within their own groups, there was no communal hugging/kissing etc). Here is a video from just after the bells (or during it......you can hear the bell being rung) I must apologise for my use of the phrase "Jesus Christ" , but it was pretty amazing!

All the flashes you can see are the fireworks being let off. And I believe the person shouting "Booze, booze, booze " in the background is Neil.

Here are also a couple of photos from just after midnight, I love the policemen's faces!

Everybody dispersed quite quickly after midnight, so we managed to find a taxi and headed over to Itaweon to finish the night off. I managed to find a girl who wasn't scared of my kilt for a New Year's kiss, so that was nice. And during the course of the night myself, Colin and Neil all became seperated so that by the time the subway opened I was all alone :( ...... but I wasn't bothered I'd had a great night. Then began what is becoming a ritual if ever a night out in Seoul occurs......the subway journey home. Only this time it was being done still half-cut, and with me wearing a kilt. What a sight.

Here are three videos documenting my journey home.

After a day recovering (much aided by a bottle of Irn-Bru- cheers Stewartie!) it was back to work on the 2nd.
I have moved onto a different timetable at In-Dong for January which means I now work 10-6 Mon/Wed/Fri, which I quite enjoy, it means I finish earlier so have more time for the gym and I can eat at a reasonable time. It looks like I will be going to my directors new school one day a week starting a week on Friday. I have mixed feelings, but the school itself is really nice so it should be good I think.
Finally, it was Scott's birthday on Saturday so we had another wee night out in Seoul. Scott is not actually an English teacher as most of us are, instead he makes his Won by selling socks and fake sunglasses in Itaweon. Here he was wheeling his mobile stall down the pavement......it's a hard life!

And so ends the first blog of 2008 (according to Blogspot, who operate on Pacific time). I hope you are enjoying them, I am certainly enjoying finding things to write about..........

Love to all, Neil

tours and turkey

Hello everyone,

First things first, a very Happy New Year to you! I'll put my pics and videos from last night up soon, but today here is a bit about some things I did last year around the Christmas period. It was different, but not quite as different as I had thought it was going to be.

I'll start back in mid December, the weekend before Christmas. I took at trip to the World Cup Stadium in Seoul, in an attempt to find a present for somebody (?), and although I didn't find what I was looking for, I still had a good look around. I took the stadium tour (50p) and got to see the dressing rooms, VIP box, and got to walk down to pitch level, although I wasn't allowed to walk on the pitch, which had a big silver blanket on it to protect the grass from the cold. Here are some pictures....I'm very keen to go back later this year when there's a game on, I think the atmosphere would be amazing.

Me up in the VIP box.

outside, looking along the upper level.

Here is a video of my potential debut for South Korea, but it wasn't to be. shame.......I was pumped up.

That weekend was also Gordie's last night in Korea, so we had a good night with him in Hongdae. It was a shame to see him go, but maybe he'll be back later this year. Go on Gordie, you know you want to!!!

It was school as normal on Christmas Eve, and as soon as I had finished that night, I packed a bag and met Neil for a mammoth subway trip into Seoul to stay at the Ramada in the Gangnam area. We had booked an "Executive Twin" which was supposed to be better than a "Superior Twin" (what is it with hotels and fancy sounding room types?) but I thought the room was pretty average. Still, there was a nice view from the window.

We ended up going for a night out in Itaweon that night as the area the hotel was in was pretty quiet. In the morning, I took full advantage of the free breakfast buffet and also used the spa/sauna......a very nice way to start Christmas Day!

Once we had recovered a bit we headed over to the City Hall area of Seoul for a bit of a wander about. Here are a couple of videos, one in a subway station somewhere and one at City Hall itself.

After a couple of hours at City Hall we headed down to the Hilton for our Christmas dinner. The Hilton was very well decorated, with a giant (revolving) christmas tree, massive festive mdel train set and a collection of different Santa dolls from all over the world. As a result, the place was mobbed with families, mostly Korean but quite a few western folk too. We met Scott and the three of us got stuck into some good food. And what good food it was. Not exactly like christmas dinner back home, but good all the same. I had some turkey with gravy and roast potatoes, sadly there was not stuffing or pigs in blankets, but I substituted with lots of smoked salmon, prawns and even a little bit of crab. Here is my plate....the turkey is on there somewhere!

After dinner we headed downstairs to the "Oak Room" to digest and relax. We ordered a couple of malts, and relaxed by the open fire (something I thought I would never see in Korea) while a pretty lady in a red dress sang Christmas songs.

It felt right.

At this point I have nicked some photos from Scott (thanks Scott), here they are:

Fire!!!!

After relaxing for a while longer and spending too much money we headed back out into the real world and caught the subway home, but not before I had got my bag stuck in the subway doors. As a westerner you usually get stared at on the subway anyway, but this time was exceptional. The worst thing was nobody laughed or even said anything, everybody just looked as I frantically wrestled with the bag trying to drag it onto the train. Eventually the doors re-opened and I was able to salvage my bag and some of my dignity.

It was back to work on Boxing Day, but only for a few days. On Thursday I helped open a new school (no ceremonial oversized scissors though) that my director is running, I was feeling pretty under the weather though so it was a long day. And then, a quiet weekend, and onto Hogmanay/New Year. It seems slightly wrong that I am writing the christmas blog on New Year's day, but that's what happens when you are disorganised like myself. I shall update about New Year on.........Easter? no....in a few days.