January 2012 Update

So, I know I have been pretty quiet on the blog front for a while, it has been a really busy few months! Excuses aside I figured it was time to give you all an update on what I have been up to!

A few months back now I finished my GEPIK contract (thankfully!) and started working at a Hagwon / Private School in Byeongjeom.  Byeongjeom is not to far from where I was in Osan so it was pretty easy to settle in.  I moved into a new apartment and I was excited to start working - it had been a bit of a rough exit from my last school with a few broken promises and some fairly average treatment - but after meeting my Hagwon directors I was fairly certain it would be different here.  The differences are fairly unbelievable, my co-teachers are lovely, helpful and super friendly.  The majority of the students really want to learn and are polite and helpful. Then, of course, there are my wonderful hours... I work from 1pm till 7:30pm Monday to Friday which means I get to sleep in every day but everything is still open when I finish.  All in all I am so glad I made the change - and many thanks to Sonya (the previous native teacher at my Hagwon) who gave me confidence in my new employers and made the hand over process so easy!

Just after I started working at my Hagwon they threw a big Halloween Party, from the other photo's I have seen I think it is a bit of a tradition at the school, and it was fantastic! The teachers all spent hours decorating the school and then classes were cancelled for the night of the party.  Each room had been set up with a different theme.

 My classroom was used as the "shop" where the students could exchange the points they had been working for during the term for stationary and toys - the selection of stuff the school brought in was pretty amazing - and the kids were lined up outside the door for their turn to go in for most of the night.  In other rooms there were activities they could get involved in and things they could do to earn a few more points for last minute shopping.

The classroom down the end of the hall had been set up with two huge cookers and some of the teachers stood down there making large quantities of dukbokki and pouring fizzy drink (soda) for the students.  My lovely students kept bringing me food throughout the night so I was stuffed by the time I left!  My job for the night was easy, and definitely fun, I got to hand out the candy!  Because it's an English school the kids had to master the phrase "trick or treat" to get their bag of candy...which was a challenge for a few but for candy these kids will do almost anything!

Before Christmas the school did a similar thing and threw a Christmas party.  The decorations had gone up a few weeks before, complete with Christmas Tree's and wreaths and the place looked amazing.  My job this time was to get involved in the activities room.  The kids made "wish cards" in which they had to write (in English) what they wanted from Santa and then they coloured and cut out little Santa's - all of which were hung on the wall in the main reception area before the end of the night.  The teachers all dressed up again and of course there was plenty more dukbokki!

I spent Christmas and New Years with Mum down in Busan.  We took the puppies down with us which made for an interesting trip... particularly the first night!  We wandered around in Haeundae Beach for a while and then picked a motel.  The room rates were rather cheap - and when we walked into the room we discovered why.  We had booked ourselves in to a love motel for the night...not just any love motel though...this one had half naked women on the walls and mirrors on the ceiling! Needless to say mum and I spent the first 30 minutes we were in the room laughing hysterically.  We figured that in such a place they would not have any problem with out puppies... so we went out for a few drinkies and left the puppies in the room.  We were told quite sternly when we returned at around 2:30 am that we were not to have pets in the room and we would have to check out in the morning...no great loss there since we had intended to move on anyway!

The rest of our stay was in the one Hotel - we never left the puppies on their own - and spent much time laughing over how we were sneaking in and out of the basement level commando style with the puppies concealed under scarves. There were a few places we couldn't go because we had the dogs but in the main we still got to see everything we wanted.  The Buddhist temples we went to were incredible and they certainly didn't have a problem with our pampered little pooches!

We made a point to go and see two particularly large temples while we were there, one in the mountains and one on the cliffs by the sea, they were both so different and both so beautiful.  The mountain temple was a lot quieter and had a much more serene feel that the temple by the sea which felt like more of a tourist destination.  I spent a lot of time at both marvelling at how beautiful the hand painting on each building was. It still boggles my mind that everything was done by hand and yet is so consistent, the patterns so uniform, it must have taken serious time.  It's also fairly amazing that these paintings have remained in tact since the 8th and 9th century; with very little restoration work considering the period of time.

We went for a long walk around the point at Taejeongdae... discovering a tiny temple tucked away in the forest at the top... and missing out on seeing too many things after that because we had mucked around so much with our long breakfast by the beach.  I recommend the big breakfast of bacon and eggs at Gecko's for anyone heading to Busan in the next little while!  We had been told that there would be a big fireworks display on the beach for new years but we were sadly disappointed...the only fireworks we saw were launched from a yacht on the other side of the beach for one of the hotels...better than nothing but still a bit of a let down!  Still we had good company and a few drinkies on the beach, with a few hundred Koreans milling about, to bring in the new year.

I also decided to celebrate Australia Day at the school... I didn't say much to the other teachers but when the day rolled around I arrived at school with a full body pink Kangaroo costume and in all my classes the students were doing word searches, quizzes, and colouring in.  They were having such a great time...the older kids were annoyed that I hadn't included the colouring stuff in their packs and insisted that I went and photocopy some for them - I think they enjoyed it more than the younger kids did!

Since then there have been a few nights out ending in early morning Nore Bang (private karaoke room) sessions...and a few early morning breakfasts of Samgyeopsal with the lovely Janette to take the edge off before the hangovers hit!  We have also managed to get a big group of people together to celebrate birthdays, the most recent being my lovely friend Jessica from Montana, at our new favourite hangout - Sam Ryan's in Suwon.

I was also lucky enough to get to explore the U.S Airfoce base in Osan with Tyler - it's amazing how intensely you start to crave the Western Style food that it's hard to get access to over here... it's the little things I miss like being able to buy sour cream at the supermarket...or get decent potatoes!  The base is amazing - it's like stepping into another country - the number of foreigners is actually a bit unnerving.  Add to that the military vehicles and all the young men roaming around in uniform with rather large guns and it feels quite surreal.  It's a huge base with it's own little mall, a few restaurants, schools, a bowling alley and a movie theatre...I mention the bowling alley so I have an excuse to bring up that I beat three boys in my first game...hehe.

I have been trying to work on doing some real writing again as well...I'm slowly getting the motivation back but I have been spending a lot of time procrastinating and a lot of time planning my next holiday!