Friday 29th October 2010

Alright so it’s been roughly a week and a half since I last wrote – feels more like its been a month! So before I fill you all in on what’s been happening and what I have been up to I have to say something about right now… It’s the end of another week of teaching and I left school a little late today to make sure I had everything ready to go for next week – So all I have to do is walk into class Monday morning and teach – based on my last few Monday’s this is important. It seems that late Sunday nights have become my thing – and there is nothing worse than getting to school on Monday morning with a hangover and having to work out what I am doing or stand over the photocopier!

The other teachers at the school are wonderful, they all make time to stop and greet me, and smile, even if they don’t speak English. The ones that do like to have a chat about the weather etc. The kids are funny, there are big bunches that stop me in the halls anytime I go anywhere, they are always so happy to see me and want to tell me about their lives. It does mean that I can’t go anywhere quietly though! I have a couple of students that stop in my classroom every day to have a chat – the other afternoon we were in there playing music on the projector and they were dancing and singing – my classroom is a little like a party room!

They love it though, and its nice that they always want to share, even about some more personal stuff. I had a student in tears the other day who just needed to talk about some trouble at home, I was really touched that she came to me, even though it was harder to tell me what was going on because of the language barrier. But back to today! I left the school and came home to put on some washing and grab my e-mart bag, you have to buy a bag to carry your groceries, they don’t come with the purchases. I wandered down to the e-mart again having decided that I was going to buy myself a jug (I had nothing to boil water in other than a pot) and some of this Korean style coffee that I have figured out I loved. I had also translated “condensed milk” with the help of my students, given how partial I am to it, and so I was hoping they would have some.

I decided to have a bit of a wander around while I was there and on the third floor I heard my name – I turned around and there were about 10 of my students racing over to me to say hello. The shop assistants looked a little shocked! We chatted for a few minutes and then I extricated myself and headed back downstairs where I asked someone about the condensed milk, or yun yoo, adding please and looking confused because that always seems to work! It did, the shop assistants are so helpful they either ask you to wait while they ask someone else or they take you straight to it, trying to help in English if they can.

The ladies at the register are starting to recognize me too and one of them today told me that my Korean is improving which made me happy! So I headed home with my jug, keen as mustard to have a cup of coffee before I start getting ready to go out, and I am proud to say that I have figured out the washing machine! Nothing had shrunk so I must have worked out the temperature! So I am sitting by my window at the moment, waiting for my dinner to cook and the water to heat up so I can have a shower, it heats up pretty quickly but I like it steaming hot! I have been putting off writing this till I get the last 3 essays out the way, but everything today just made me smile, I feel so at home here which is so surprising after only 3 weeks.

Everything just seems to be working and I really feel like I am living my dream! I have never been happier and I think I made the best decision I have ever made in coming here. I told the vice-principal this today and I wasn’t sure if he was going to hug me or cry (and he’s quite a strict looking man – a little scary) he settled for bowing 5 or 6 times and telling me that it was the highest compliment I could pay the Korean people and the school and that they were so pleased to always have my smiling face around the school. So sweet!! He obviously didn’t see me the Monday morning before last when I was so hung over I thought I was going to die… I have been too scared to touch soju since!! So much has happened in the last week and a half I don’t really know where to start!

Obviously I am thrilled by the discovery of this awesome coffee stuff – its in a little packet and has milk powder and sugar all in there too – quite sweet – and not sure you could really call it coffee in all fairness – but delicious and hot – which is a bonus because it was minus one the other night. I am feeling a lot more comfortable with the Korean chopsticks now too, I had always felt pretty confident with chopsticks, but these are metal and tiny and take a little practice to get used to, and the things they eat with chopsticks are incredible.

I am getting to the point now where I can manage to separate the fish with the chopsticks with one hand… and without looking like a monkey trying to work a chainsaw…lol. Hotdogs with chopsticks was a bit of a challenge though! I have been trying heaps of different things in terms of food and I have been out for dinner more than I have been at home for the last 2 weeks, but apparently this is normal, and it’s ridiculously cheap to eat out – you really don’t save much by staying at home, and of course it is more social to eat out! So… thinking back now.

The Seoul Tour, run by the government people who bring all the foreign teachers out here, was last Wednesday. By then I knew at least 2 people going on the tour, which was great because we could all catch the bus together to the meeting point, I hadn’t actually caught the bus or the train yet, and I have been perpetually lost since I got here, general direction is as good as it gets! So I met them nice and early and we piled onto a bus, and then another bus when we got to the meeting point, though all the people I knew were on a different bus. There were 3 bus loads of foreign teachers, just from our area, and they are only the public school teachers and only the ones that registered to go – so there are heaps and heaps of foreigners here!

We visited a load of tourist destinations in Seoul, had a traditional lunch, and finished the day at the Seoul tower – which was amazing. We just happened to be there for a martial arts display which was pretty incredible – a really nice way to get a taste of the culture. Really though the whole trip was more about meeting other foreign teachers and networking…I met some really great people! Shall I name and shame? Why not! Michael and Ana I already knew, then there was Adam and Troy from Canada, Rhoda and Mary from South Africa, Andrew from the states and if I have missed you I am sorry – not mentioned but still loved! Oops… life getting in the way again – will continue this catch up very soon!