A Messy Hongdae Night and a Goodbye...

This week has been a bit of an emotional one as I had to say goodbye to a good friend, Nicole, as she left to go back home to the States.  Goodbyes suck.  And I really can’t handle them.  Good friends is what has made this experience so amazing and having to say goodbye this week and thinking of other goodbye that I'll have to say in just a few more weeks makes me sad.  Although last Saturday was tinged with sadness, we celebrated Seoul style one last time and had lots of fun!

The night went a little something like this:

닭 갈비  (dak galbi= chicken, rice, veg, rice cake, spice(!!) and CHEESE!!  D-LISH, albeit it a tad spicy!

Oh Nicole, how I will miss you and that special dance/rap treat of yours that you brought into my life!

노래방.  Obviously. 

Singing with Tara.  The emotional, inconsolablee mess I got myself into when singing 'The Circle of Life' came shortly after this.  Cringe.   And then Taco Bell also happened at some point...

Shoes breaking.  I blame the monsoon.  Had another pair in my bag though, like you do.

Buckets in Mama Gorilla's.  Naturally. 

Not leaving at a respectable hour with the others and instead going on to FF's...  

...and finding more friends and staying out to till the morning subway!

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

The last few days have marked the start of Korea’s Monsoon Season and by God, they weren’t joking when they said the rain was coming! It literally has not stopped! And it comes down so heavily.  It’s awful.  After getting off the bus in the morning (I’m already soaked before getting on the bus due to the short walk to the bus stop) I have a fifteen minute walk to school and in this weather, it’s just a nightmare. 

Rainy Sinjeong!

Because it’s so warm I can’t wear a jacket meaning that I’m absolutely drenched by the time I get to school even with my umbrella.  Then it takes ages to dry off.  Argh!

I forgot how miserable the rain makes me.  Looking out of the window to what looks like the end of the world and the constant feeling of being damp all day is not a great combination for happiness. 

To make matters worse, I really want to buy some wellies because I have no appropriate footwear but then I remember I live in Korea and here my size 7 feet are seen as freakishly abnormal clown feet and I can’t get shoes anywhere! Not good.

I don’t think I’ll ever complain about rainy Manchester ever again now after this!         

Speak to Me

This week I had to do Speaking Tests with grade four.  Now, I have many qualms with the education system in England, don’t get me wrong, but the way students’ speaking is tested in Korea just baffles me. At my school, the students are asked to memorise a dialogue (typically six to eight short sentences) for each unit that we have covered in class.

Firstly this is a difficult task, no questions about it.  If I was asked to try and remember all that I would have to practise for hours and even then I’d probably still fail miserably.  And secondly, in my opinion, it’s utterly pointless and a complete waste of everyone’s time.  It is not a true reflection of how well these kids can speak in English.  It’s simply a memorisation test, testing how well they can remember some English sentences if they revise hard enough.  And how that’s going to help anyone, I’ll never know!

One example highlights this perfectly.  One girl performed very well on the test and I was surprised as I’d not remembered ever having a successful conversation with her in English.  After she’d finished I told her how well she’d done and asked, “Did you study hard?” (a relatively simple question, yes?) Yet, I have never seen a more puzzled look.  I asked again and she just stared at me blankly.  I smiled, she walked away and I was left to write down the ‘A’ grade that she had acquired despite her poor English speaking ability.

I spoke to the Korean English teacher afterwards making my thoughts on the matter clear.  She agreed with everything I said and agreed that it would be more useful to test the children in more of a conversational way.  She was really supportive as always and told me that next time we could try and combine both ways to get a truer reflection of their levels. 

But next time, when the results come back much lower than this time, will those results be made public?  Because what will that ‘look’ like? I’ve seen this hundreds of times before.  We’ll see what happens…      

Fun in the Sun

Last weekend was another sunny one so we decided to hit the beach again to get our tan on.  This time, Eulwangri Beach in Incheon was the destination.  A group of friends were there celebrating a Birthday so Katie, Nicole and I met up with them when we arrived on Saturday.

The beach was quite busy but not crowded which was good and we were the only ones sunbathing as Koreas generally don’t like getting tanned. ‘White skin is more beautiful,’ apparently.  Bars and restaurants lined the beach and the condo we stayed in was just a couple of minutes away.  Everything was so close and the place had a real ‘holiday feel’ about it.  I loved it.

Although it got ridiculously cold later at night, we had loads of fun.  We had a little camp fire going so that (and the Soju) kept us warm.  We ended up in a 누래방 (noraebang- song room) at one point with a couple of Koreans we collected along the way, who completed put us to shame.  Then we finished the night doing fireworks on the beach.  It was great. 

Waking up in the condo the next morning was a funny sight.  Bodies flat out everywhere.  There were fifteen of us in the one room and because these Korean places don’t usually have beds, we were all just on the floor with blankets. Comfy, I hear you say.  Well, comfier after the Soju of course! 

Sunday involved lots more sunbathing on the beach and dips in the sea (not the most beautiful of waters but it did the trick.)  And when the sun started to go down it was time for us to begin the journey back to Seoul.

고기, 고기, and more 고기

What better way of kicking off the weekend than a night at 고기 King.  고기 King is a Korea BBQ restaurant with a difference- the meat (고기-gogi) is unlimited!  It's amazing!  It's a chain restaurant and there is one less than two minutes from my apartment but last Friday we checked out the one in Luke's area in Amsa (almost an hour and half away from me on the opposite side of Seoul!) But there was unlimited meat on offer so of course I didn't need asking twice! 

My fave Korean BBQ.

Look how happy Luke looks about cooking my food.

Yum.

One of Luke's students was at the table next to us...

...with his gf.  And they were wearing matching tees!!   This is the norm for Korean couples.  We see it all the time.  I've waited soooo long for a shot like this! 

BBQ fun.

     

Ten Months in Korea!

It is exactly ten months ago today that I arrived in Korea and I’m still loving life as much as I was when I first arrived. On the one hand, the past ten months seem to have gone by very quickly, but on the other, it feels like this has been my life forever, in a good way of course. 

Things are different now as I’ve felt settled here for a long time and in a way, things have calmed down a lot recently.  The novelty of going out all the time and staying out all night has worn off slightly and people are trying to save money for upcoming trips.  Having said that, last weekend turned out to be one of the craziest yet.  I suppose as long as Soju is as cheap as water and Hongdae is only twenty minutes away, the partying will continue…

Drinking in the park by the river.  Great company, sun shining. Wonderful.

My newest English friend, Rhian.

Makgeolli- a day time favourite!

Cartwheels.

Having a sing-song.

In the taxi to Hongdae...

Delicious food that we hoped would sober us up...

One of my last nights out with Nicole :(

Getting my make-up done in the shop because we didn't want to waste time going back home to get ready! Told you Korea was changing me!

My beautiful Canadian girls!

And where it always starts to go down hill... SOJU...

     

The day that turned out not so bad...

So yesterday was the day I’d been dreading most- the infamous Hike Day.  Since arriving here, most of my friends have had to go on a hike at some point with all the teachers from their school.  And yesterday was my school’s turn.  I can’t begin to tell you how much I was dreading it.  I’m not a hiker, as anyone who knows anything about me would know!  And I know… ‘oh, but all of the beautiful sights to see in Korea, all of the hiking that could be done, it’s what everyone does here, blah, blah, blah…’ I KNOW!  I’ve heard it all before but it just does not interest me in the slightest.  But yesterday was different; I had to go.  So I went.  And actually, besides still being alive to tell the tale, I have to say it wasn’t bad at all.  Might even go so far to say, I actually quite enjoyed myself.  Shock. Horror.  With the thing I was most concerned about not being an issue (the principal seeing me dying after only three minutes into the damn thing!) I just got on with it and it was surprisingly pleasant!  

Off we go...

The best/ only view we got.

There is a mountain right behind our school which is convenient so that’s where we went.  And everyone ended up doing it in small groups and at different times.  So I just went with the other NSET (Native Speaking English Teacher) and our Korean English co-teachers- the English Crew.   And it was so relaxed and laid back.  None of them are big hikers either, so we walked at a steady pace and stopped when we wanted.  Not intense at all like I was worried it might have been. 

Co-teachers.

A man doing some stretches.

The whole thing only lasted about an hour.  Again, my kind of hike! And although there wasn’t an amazing view at the top (it’s covered in trees so you can barely see anything) it was still nice to be out and about but away from all the noisy Seoul streets.

The English Crew.

So, all in all, a very positive first hike.  Might even be a second one somewhere along the line.  Watch this space…

After the hike, and this is where it gets good, all the teachers went for a school dinner, as we often do.  We went to a BBQ place which specialised in 오리(duck) I was so excited as it’s my favourite meat and I’ve not had it in such a long time.  It was absolutely delicious.  And of course no Korean work’s dinner is complete without the constant flow of 맥주(beer) and  소주  (Soju) and by the end I was feeling a little tiddly.  The principal also made his rounds with an expensive bottle of whiskey that everyone had to have a shot of.  And mine and Ian’s (the other NSET) had to be mixed with Soju because we’re ‘foreigners.’  I’m not sure if this was to water it down or make it stronger.  I didn’t ask questions.  I just smiled and drank!  More shots of Soju were in order after my co-teacher announced her engagement.  Everyone was really excited and this time, it was the vice-principal’s turn to make her way round offering shots of Soju to celebrate the good news.

  오리(duck) ...yummy, yummy!

The principal trying to get us drunk!

Me GETTING drunk with the VP! What a corker of a picture!

I love these dinners with the teachers.  Koreans work extremely hard, but they can certainly play hard too!  These kinds of events are brilliant for establishing good, positive working relationships and they give a good sense of appreciation from higher up.  It’s a shame that more importance isn’t put on teachers’ working relationships and building staff moral in England.  I think it would make a huge difference.  Soju during work hours is definitely what’s missing from the British Education system!                        

...and Relaxing!

From the festival, we got a taxi to the ferry port that took us the 3 minute journey (yes, a bridge would make more sense but this is Korea!) over to Muuido Island.  (We’d planned to make the most of our weekend as it was another long one so it just has to be done!) We got off the ferry and straight on a bus bound for Hangagae Beach.  Within minutes of arriving on the beach we were all flat out, relaxing in the sun, trying to shake the hangovers from the previous day’s/ night’s madness. 

Ferry to Muuido Island.

Hanagae Beach, Muuido Island

And this is pretty much how the next two days panned out.  Lying and relaxing in the sun.  Perfect.  But don’t be fooled.  As hot as it was during the day, we were once again in for another freezing night.  After cooking rice and jajang on the BBQ Craig found, I retired to our little beach hut- I couldn’t wait to get warmed up by the heated floor.  It was wonderful. 

Cooking din dins on the BBQ Craig found.

Our little beach hut complete with heated floor.

The next day was a little cooler but it was nice to lie and relax in the peace and quite before the bus-ferry-bus-subway journey back to the craziness that is Seoul. 

Back to Seoul we go...

All round wonderful weekend! 

Rocking...

Midan City, an up and coming ‘all-in-one city’ development expected to attract millions and be complete by 2017, and just ten mins from Incheon airport, played host to Rockorea this weekend.  Of course when I heard about this, ‘all day booze-up’ immediately sprung to mind and I did not need asking twice! 

Rockorea, Midan City. A musical festival with a difference!

There were plenty of food options available.  Even hot dogs.

We took the subway to the airport and a free shuttle bus from there.  While we were on the bus the thought, ‘wouldn’t it be funny if the bus dropped us off here’ popped into my mind while looking out at the deserted wasteland/ building sight that is, unbeknown to me then, the Midan development project.  Sure enough the bus halted to a stop and off we got.  All this was forgotten soon after as the sun was shining, the beer was flowing and bands were playing.

The festival featured many tribute bands with The Tatles (The Beatles) being my favourite.  Everyone was up dancing while they were playing and I’m hoping I’ll see them again at some point when they play in Hongdae. 

The Beatles tribute band. My faves!

Chippy tea!

The other big highlight of my night was… wait for it… my chippy tea! It came wrapped up in paper and everything! I was so excited! It was yummy and for those few minutes made me feel that little bit closer to home!

Despite the warm day we’d had and all the dancing and drinking that followed, we were in for a VERY cold night as we were right on the sea.  It was FREEZING and I didn’t have enough layers or anywhere to sleep (we were planning on staying up all through the night) but luckily I managed to crash in a friend’s tent for a couple of hours- I’m just not as young as I used to be!

We left for the next part of our trip around 6.30am the next morning after a breakfast of delicious sandwiches and to the sound of the Guns N’ Roses tribute band rocking out.  Just fabulous.  

6am