Friday October 15th 2010

Getting up this morning was hard - was feeling a little drained by how big the week had been - but still looking forward to getting to school and working on a plan for next week. Not that I am going to need much of a plan! Wednesday I am off up to Seoul, Thursday is the school sports day, and Friday is the school Carnival / Festival... so I am actually only teaching 2 days! I think Tuesday after school they are running the Korean Popstar competition as well so it should be a pretty action packed week - and Yun mentioned I should bring my camera... as if I would forget!

 Classes went by in a bit of a blur - definitely bored with teaching the same lesson 20 something times in a week - I'll have to remember that, to keep my activities different, so I am not burnt out by the end of it. Lunch time is always interesting, the food is different each day, and each day I am trying something new that I have never seen before... except today there was kimchi, and some kind of eggplant thing, and chicken nuggets with ketchup! I nearly laughed when I saw them - it was the last thing I was expecting for lunch! Nice for a bit of a change though! In the afternoon I met with some of the students that I am helping out for their performance next Friday, went through the script and made sure they were comfortable with the English phrases, they'll do a great job next week I'm sure!

Then the teacher asked me if I would help her with a bit of translation... I was momentarily confused...given that I don't speak Korean, translation would be a little difficult for me. Then I worked out that what she was asking for was for me to explain the document in more basic english so that she could work it out - it was a one page conclusion of some kind of history book that dealt with the economic control women had in the middle ages - some fairly complex language - and some fairly complex themes - and she had to have it done by 9am Saturday morning, and I had to meet Yun to sort out my phone within about 40 minutes...it would have been much easier had she bought it to me 2 days before when she was asked to do it! But we got it done, and she was so grateful for the help.

 So, I met Yun and we went down to the second floor staff room where we were to collect one of the other teachers, Ja Young, who was going to drive us to the phone shop - it's not that far from the school, but again with poor Yun's leg driving was the best option. While we were in the staffroom the teacher who is in charge of the after school program approached me, and through Yun, asked me to write down the name for my dance class, and my full name so that they could add it into the program. They want me to start next week, running the class two afternoons during the week, and I get paid overtime for doing it - so it's a win-win situation...and it's only an extra hour two days a week so it should be fun! I hadnt thought about a name for the class, and given the english level I wasnt worried about callig it something clever, given the students know me as Mia (pronounciation is easier...) the class will be known as "Mia's dance class" - not very original but it gets the message across! We then jumped in the car and headed down to the phone shop - you cant even get a prepaid sim card over here without having Korean Identification, so I was ridiculously grateful that Yun was happy to organize all that for me, otherwise it would have been another week or so till I got it all sorted...until I got my alien registration card.

I paid 20,000won which is about $20 Australian, but text messages only cost 20 won - which is roughly 2 cents, international text messages are about 40won which is roughly 4 cents, and it is 40won per 30 seconds on the phone - which apparently is really expensive for calls over here... I told them what the costs were in Australia and their jaws dropped! The credit will last me for 2 months and I would doubt that I would have to recharge it before then unless I start making international phone calls and spending hours on the phone... but that is why I spend the quality time that I do with my skype! I was really excited to finally have it all working - I still havent really figured the phone out though - I dont know how to get the caps lock off when I am sending texts and I havent figured out how to put in the international codes for sending texts overseas - but I'll work it out in time!

From the phone shop the girls asked me if I would like to join them for coffee, they wanted to have coffee and cake before they went back to school, and their favourite coffee shop was just around the corner. It was a great little place, they had real coffee and hot chocolate etc, and home made cakes that were to die for! It was decorated like a little english coffee shop and the music playing in the background was a selection of Norah Jones, Billie Holiday and some other Jazz greats. We sat there and talked for a while until one of the other teachers joined us and then headed on to dinner. The other teacher who joined us didnt speak a word of English, she teaches Korean at the school, and teaches it in the way that we do English and Literature in schools in Australia, but she smiles at me a lot and didnt seem to mind me tagging along.

For dinner we went to a restaurant in the heart of Osan, it was on the second floor and we were sitting right next to the window looking out over a busy street. The tables were very low to the ground, you sat on cushions on the floor to eat, and shoes had to be removed at the door. Sitting on the floor is definitely not a hardship when the in-floor heating is on! We had a dish called BuDae JJiGae, also known as "Army Stew", on the way up to the restaurant Ja Young explained to me the history behind the dish. It orginated during / after the Korean war in the 50's. Meat was scarce and the people were hungry, so they used to take the left over meat from the American Army bases, but it made them sick because the meat was old so they began to take the meat and boil it, adding chilli and vegetables to the mix.

Now it has become a favourite dish, though obviously the meat is fresh, and they sometimes add noodles and cheese and ground beef into the mix. It tasted absolutely fantastic! Like most Korean food it is pretty spicy, porbably spicier than some of the other food I have had thus far, and you can see the flecks of chilli on the meat - so at least you know what you are getting yourself in for! I ate a ridiculous amount and felt thouroughly stuffed afterwards, but my nose was clear, from all the chilli, and I discovered something else here that I like to eat! To feed four people on BuDae JJiGae cost about 16,000 won which is a little under $15 Australian. Ja Young was lovely enough to drop me home after dinner, fortunately it was on her way back to school, otherwise I would have quite happily walked - it's amazing how safe I feel here - I am sure it has something to do with the fact that there are more people walking around on the street and driving past at night than there are during the day. I was also really happy to get back to my apartment (especially now I have rearranged all the furniture!), by 9pm I was struggling to keep my eyes open! I can't quite believe that the week is over - so much has happened!