Before-Beijing-Blog

Hi,

A class has been cancelled at my school today as some of the older kids are doing their mid-term exams so I thought I would seize the opportunity to do something constructive and post a blog, as promised, before we head to Beijing on Saturday.

Greg and I are both ready for the trip, we have our visas and accommodation booked, and I managed to borrow a Lonely Planet guide from one of Lisa's friends so that should help a bit. We are going to exchange money tomorrow at KEB and then that's us. We will have to catch a bus at 05:10 out to the airport (groan) but I don't care really, I'm so looking forward to getting away for a while, and seeing the sights of China's capital.

Since I last blogged, (if you discount the "all the jobs I've ever had" post) things have been a bit quieter as I have been trying to save the pennies for going away. A few Saturdays back I had a great day, Neil, Greg and I headed over to Ilsan (a suburb of Seoul, about 90mins from us) which is where Connor and Steph are now living. There is a big park there with a lake in the middle, so we took a ball and had a kick-about on the grass. It was also the first day I was allowed beer after my self-imposed Lent-style ban, so it was nice to have a few cold bottles as well!

After a few hours of mucking about there I quickly changed into a shirt and tie (behind a bush) and headed on the subway to the other side of Seoul to meet Lisa. We went to Seoul Arts Centre to watch a performance by the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra. It was my first experience of anything like that, and I have to say it was an enjoyable one. The way they all play in harmony is amazing, and some of the pieces were beautiful. The conductor was called Jesus Amigo (appropriate given it was Easter Saturday) and we had great seats, on the 2nd tier right at the front. And all that for only 30,000 Won (15 pounds)! After some post-orchestra dinner we headed back to Incheon, tired but happy.

An afternoon in the park!

The orchestra getting ready to start.

The day after (Easter Sunday) we were going to venture down to watch/participate in the world's largest tug-of-war contest, but I awoke on Sunday feeling very strange, sort of flu-like and dizzy, so I was floored all day. I think it might even have been sunstroke or maybe an adverse reaction to the beer after being off it for so long! who knows.......

Marco, a Finnish guy who is an engineer here, is leaving soon after being in Korea for almost 3 years, so last weekend we headed to Seoul for a final night-out with him, although it ended up we didn't see him for too long. He is a really cool guy, and I will be sorry to see him go. He is being relocated to Germany, but it sounds like he will basically commute to work from Finland! Quite a long one!

The weather here is improving, we had the very brief cherry-blossom a week or two ago, and although it has gone there are now lots of other pretty flowers starting to appear, and everything is starting to become a bit greener. I have been going for occasional runs down by the Incheon 'river' and also playing a bit of badminton with the boys, which I really enjoy.

The teaching is going well, although honestly right now I am a bit preoccupied with going away so that is dominating most of my thoughts!

Lisa and I see each other at least one night during the week and at weekends, we went for some DELICIOUS ribs last Friday, she is off to Hong Kong for the holiday period so I hope she will enjoy that as much as I did.

And that's about it, I've run out of thoughts and time, my final class of the day awaits!

I'll blog when I'm back from China and Greg's birthday weekend/the DJ festival is over.

All the 'jobs' I've ever had!

Just posted this as a Note on Facebook, but thought I'd fire it on here too.  A list of all the jobs I've ever done.

Greg and I were talking about this at work the other day, so I decided to make a list and see how many I've actually had. They are in rough order. Some of them were not undertaken for very long, but all have earned me money at some point in my life.

1: Empty bottle collecter/sorter, Argyll Hotel, Iona. It should have never been a job that somebody was specifically employed to do, but the person who employed me was trying to win me over so i got it. Much needed pocket money when I was young.

2: Hall cleaner, Village Hall, Iona: I cleaned the hall after discos and other events. 3 pound 50 an hour. and I got to play my own music while I worked. And got free booze if it was left over.  

3: Relief Deckhand, Iolaire, Iona. My favourite job ever. Spend all day on the water, drive a boat, get paid well, and have good banter with whoever you are working with. Brilliant.

4: Vending Assistant, Sodexho, Edinburgh. My 1st job not on Iona. I worked in the Standard Life offices on George St, and had to go around and refill and clean all the coffee vending machines. At lunch time I went and helped with the washing up, and sometimes I worked late in the staff shop which was good because I got free sandwiches. During this time I also worked for 2 days as a Kitchen Porter at some restaurant/bar near Ryan's bar in the West End but it was too hard work and I quit after two days and never got paid.  

5: Deckhand, R.Tucker Thompson, New Zealand. I never got paid for this, but got my accommodation and food paid for and an allowance so it counts I think. Also a great job, although I was shit at most of it. Worst bit was going up the rigging untethered to furl sails in a big swell, best bit was ferrying passengers to shore in the RIB. I will never forget this one.

6: Bakery assistant, Paihia, New Zealand. I got this job because the woman who helped me get job number 5's husband owned the bakery and so she was obligated to find me work after the ship buggered off to Fiji. The pies were delicious, and I piled on the pounds as a result.

7: Fruit Picker, Gisborne, New Zealand. I didn't do this for very long. Oranges were OK, but we did one day of Lemons and they were horrendous. You had to use a stepladder to reach most of them, you had to cut each lemon off the tree because if you pulled them it damaged the fruit, and the lemon trees had thorns so my arms at the end of one day looked like I was a self-harmer. On top of this, we worked out we earned 1.50 a day. Candidate for worst job ever.

8: Vine Pruner, Gisborne, New Zealand. You had to trim off all the old dead branches from the vines and then keep 5 or 6 and tie them to the adjacent fences. I was slow at first but I sped up. I remember working with a cool French guy who taught me lots of French swear words, most of which I have now forgotten. Most people didn't work when it rained, but I did. trooper.

9: General Assistant, Argyll Hotel, Iona. The job I did before and for the first couple of university summers, before graduating to the kitchen. Consisted of scullery (washing dishes), pots (washing pots), chambermaiding in the morning and laundry. For at least one summer I also painted the annex (listening to Stevie Wonder non-stop) and did gardening. A job with a lot of good memories, and different people.

10: Bakery Assistant, Sainsburys, Stirling. I did this for a while in 1st year of uni. In the winter when I was staying in Dunblane I commuted on the bike. I hated the uniform, and disliked the job. I was shit at slicing bread, and the meringue towers were always difficult to pack.

11: Betterware Salesman, Stirling. I delivered Betterware catalogues in Riverside, Stirling, and then a few days later went back and picked them up along with any orders. If someone ordered something the area rep came round a week or so later and then I delivered it, all on my bike. I did it more to aleviate boredom during the winter holiday rather than make money.

12: Cash and Carry assistant, Booker, Stirling. I loved this job. I mainly stacked shelves and served customers, towards the end I was supervising tills a bit too. Because it was a C&C they didn't care too much about tidyness, so you could leave packaging around and it was OK. We used to have pallet truck races, crisp box stacking competitions etc. A good laugh.

13: Commis chef, Argyll Hotel, Iona. It was hard work, but good. I liked breakfasts the most, I was my own boss and liked making the fry-ups look good. It also taught me how to cook a lot of food too.

14: Mackerel Merchant, Iona. We caught mackerel, and sold them to the hotels. 1.50 a fish, gutted. Beer money mainly.

15: Customer Service, Scottish Widows, Edinburgh. An inbound call centre, I was trained to deal with pensions calls. Mostly old people who didn't understand their pension or financial advisers unhappy about something. Sitting down all day, depressing, unhealthy, no prospect of career advancement, I think this beats the Lemon picking to the worst job I have done. NEVER AGAIN.

16: Whelker, Iona. Lucrative, but back-breaking, literally. If you found a good patch and the weather was nice it was easy money, but if not.....its tough. The summer of 2007 with Nat and Stewart was brilliant.

17: English Teacher, GnB Academy, South Korea. My current job. I love being in the classroom, but don't enjoy the other aspects of the job, the phone teaching and pointless paperwork, and the fact I am inside all day. But I've been doing it for over a year and will do it for another year or so, so it can't be that bad!

A wee update

As the title says, this is just a wee update on what I've been up to in the last few weeks. I will blog again before the start of May, and then again shortly after that. The reasons for this blogging 'timetable' will hopefully become clear below.

The last few weeks have been pretty full on socially, a good few nights out in Seoul, spending time with Lisa and quite a bit of gym/badminton and even a little football too. At the end of my last blog I mentioned I would be playing 5-aside at Munhak where I hurt my ankle in December. It turned out to be a a busier weekend than I had planned!

We went out in Seoul on the Saturday, and I, having not taken the subway home in a while, decided I would give it a go. Big mistake. Of course, the nice heated seats and a good dose of alcohol made sure I drifted off to sleep almost immediately. I woke up 3 hours later about 6 stops from the OTHER end of the line I was supposed to be at (the other side of Seoul). Another 3 hours on the subway and I finally got home at around 11am, but got a text from someone asking if I fancied playing 11-aside as they were a man down. "Why not" says I, so it was off to play for Seoul St. Pats against Incheon Shooters (cue a few dirty looks and shouts of "what are you playing for them for?") Thankfully the guy who was supposed to play eventually turned up so I only had about 60 mins on the field. Straight after it was in a taxi and over to Munhak for 3 hours of 6-aside! Safe to say my feet were a bit tired at the end of the day. Pretty full on, but good fun.

Two weekends ago, Lisa and I spent the day in Wolmido, a seaside area of Incheon, that I have visited a couple of times before. Previously, I didn't really like it that much, but on this occasion we had a really good time. We climbed up the hill (Wolmi san) which afforded brilliant views over Incheon port, down to New Songdo and even out to the new Incheon bridge. Here's the Facebook photo link and a panorama from the top.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=215565&id=777495416&l=5fa0a1e889

Hmmmm I just uploaded it and it's pretty crap. Right, I'll try a non-panorama shot and see if that's any better.

That's a bit better! In the foreground you can see a ship in the lock about to enter the main port basin, and some car carriers loading up. In the distance is the new Incheon bridge. The main span is complete, they are aiming to have it open in October and work seems to be rattling on, I would imagine it'll be on schedule.

After coming back down the 'mountain' (190m high) we went and had a look at the small amusement park at Wolmido, had a surprisingly terrifying ride on a Viking and enjoyed my favourite, the dodgems/bumper cars. Maybe it's because I can't drive in real life, but I love them! We then headed into Chinatown for dinner and caught a taxi home. A good day.

A week ago today (Wednesday) Greg and I finally got our chance to see Oasis in concert in Seoul. We got the bus in and met Scott and (James) Tucker, got our tickets, had a quick beverage of Soju and Powerade (still off the beer......so you have to diversify!) and headed in. There was a good crowd, we had standing tickets but weren't allowed too close to the stage, but what with the big screens and our taller stature compared to most Koreans, we got a pretty good view. They didn't disappoint, played most of the classics, Liam was his usual wide-boy self, and the rest of the crowd loved it too. As is often the case with dark venues where everyone is going mental, my photos were mostly blurry, but there were a few good ones. Here's a couple:

The second one courtesy of Greg. Thanks.

What else has been going on? Last weekend saw the start of the Korean baseball season, so on Saturday we went and saw SK Wyverens (Incheon's team, and 2007/2008 Champions) lose 8-2 to Hanwha Eagles. On Sunday there was an Incheon FC game, which myself and Greg went to, they got a great 2-0 win against high-flying new team Gangwon FC. We also caught the tail end of the baseball, this time SK beat Hanwha 5-2, so the series was 1-1.

On Saturday night, it was one of Lisa's friends birthdays so we headed into Seoul. The venue was the Ice Bar, the only one in Korea. You pay 15,000 won (around 7 pounds 50) to get in, this gets you the loan of a silver poncho-style jacket, some gloves and one free drink. The whole place is made of ice, even the glasses. The walls, seats, lots of sculptures, it's all ice! And obviously, to stop it all from melting, the bar is kept at a cool -5C. Here are some piccies:

Lisa in her jacket

The barman serving up the drinks. It's a cool (literally!) place to go for a drink or two, but I wouldn't want it to be my local! We stayed for a short while, then went to a Norie Bang (Karaoke room) and then Lisa and I took a late-night, high-speed taxi back to Incheon.

And so, from past activities, to future plans. The biggest news is that Greg and I have booked our flights to Beijing, we fly with China Southern (hmmmmmmmmmm) on May 2nd and return on May 5th. We are in the process of getting visa's and then it will be time to sort accommodation and what we want to see/do. Must's for me are Tiannamen Square, the Great Wall and the Olympic venues (Bird's Nest, Water Cube especially). We will have almost 4 full days though so we should be able to fit in a bit. When we return it is Greg's birthday and the Seoul World DJ festival the weekend after, the line-up is not as good as last year but it is a nice park and if the weather stays fine it'll be a good weekend I'm sure.

Before that, on Saturday Lisa and I are going to see the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra in Seoul. I've never been to anything like it before, so I'm quite excited, and it is making me feel very cultured already! The day after we're thinking about taking a bus down to a small village south of Incheon to witness the largest tug-of-war in the world. The rope is over 200m long and over 1m in diameter. Hopefully they'll let us have a go too!

I will post again before we head to Beijing and then again after the DJ festival. Until then, lots of love and goodnight.

Oh, here is another link to my most recent Facebook album. Right now it only has some other photos of the Ice Bar trip but I'll fill it up gradually.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=238531&id=777495416&l=d95cc70694