Wednesday 30 July 2008

Holiday

I've been on holiday since Friday. Technically I had 4 lessons on Monday afternoon but they consisted mainly of oral tests and hangman. I haven't done a great deal in my time off. More Noraebang, a spot of bingeing, and I had some soup. Oh and I moved out. I'd been in the old place for a month, and as is an ECC tradition, I move into the room of the departing teacher. It's bigger, the air con is better, the shower is better, I have (free?) cable TV and my commute to school is slashed by about ninety seconds. However, it's a bit noisier, there are no hobs, only hot plates, and no drawers. No drawers! My cutlery is just lying all over the place. I'll post pictures when I've unpacked and tidied up a bit.

Here, meanwhile, is my view. The other side of the building to my last place. The happening side.

And look! We had sun yesterday! Awesome. OK. I'm going exploring now.

Sunday 27 July 2008

Drink


Listen: Koreans like to drink. The first night I was here I went for a walk down the road and back, and stepped over several guys in suits passed out on steps. This was a Sunday. After a 80 hour week at the office though you'd want to pour as much as you could down your neck. That was in Suyu, and while Junggye has less of that, there's still a very tangible culture here. Despite this the bars, in this area at least are pretty thin on the ground and never packed, which in my books is a good thing.

But this is the thing: you can buy alcohol 24 hours a day from any convenience store, and to give you an idea of their prevalence, there are at least 10 of them within a five minute walk of my apartment, open all day every day. The majority of these stores have tables and chairs outside, inviting you to buy a few bottles and enjoy them bathed in the neon lights of the store. The selling point is that you can get a 1.6 litre bottle of Cass or Hite for about £2.50. And soju is even cheaper. I've resisted going down the soju route so far, though. I've seen the consequences. Plus it tastes like toilet duck. I just read this on wikipedia:
More than 3 billion bottles were consumed in South Korea in 2004.[3] In 2006, it was estimated that the average adult Korean (older than 20) had consumed 90 bottles of soju during that year, with each bottle equivalent to seven shots.
And this sounds like suicide:
Despite tradition, soju is not always consumed in unmixed form. A poktanju (lit: "bomb drink,") consists of a shot glass of soju dropped into a pint of draft beer (like a boilermaker) and is drunk quickly. The reverse equivalent, a shot glass of draft beer dropped into a pint of soju, is called suso poktanju (lit: "hydrogen bomb drink").

Nowon is a short bus/taxi ride away and has a lot more going on. Though when I went last night with my coworker Sean with the intention of finding a club, we wandered haphazardly and fruitlessly around for a while before getting turned away from a place because we weren't Korean. Rather than making the point that that's a bit racist, we just went home. It would seem that the GI-saturated meatfest that is Itaewon is the top choice for a proper night out. Not that I'm much of a clubber anyway, as you probably know, but you crave the bright lights once in a while.

So, OK, wrap this up now. Conclusion: I drink more here than I'm used to. Had a couple of stinking hangovers at first, lost whole days after getting in at 6am and it really can't be beneficial to my health or my skin, but, interestingly, I think I've lost weight. Work that one out.

Sunday 20 July 2008

Rain

It's wet season. I have seen some sun since I've been here, and always when I'm in a classroom, but the sky has generally been monotonously grey and ominous. What's mildly irritating is that it's rained both days of all three weekends since I've been here, so whenever I've been out looking at/for stuff, I come back clammy and unfulfilled. Can't say I've seen Seoul in the best light yet. Literally.

This was the demoralising view from my window on Saturday morning:


Today, I boarded the subway intending to go one stop to Nowon, because I hadn't been there during the day and sober yet, and it's just on my doorstep. It was actually even a bit sunny when I left. Umbrellaless, on arriving at Nowon I saw the rain tipping down and stayed there on the nice dry train. So, plan B. Except I didn't have a plan B, so I kept sitting. I eventually ended up on the other side of the city at the World Cup stadium. This:


Plus, it worked: it wasn't raining here! Not much anyway.

Koreans really loved football for four weeks in 2002. It's still popular, but the interest has subequently waned, meaning there's little demand for a however-many-thousand-seater stadium. So they made it into another mall. I walked around it, thinking I might be able to have a look at the pitch or something, but unless I missed it, you can't. I did walk around the concourse surrounding the stadium, which was nice as it was only raining a bit, and for the first time pretty much ever in Seoul, I was all alone. Grey, wet solitude! Look!



The upshot of all this climactic inclemency is that I have a bastard cold. My health's not exactly been complimented by the lifestyle either though. Alongside eating lots of spicy food and junk and few vegetables, realising too late that I'd eaten month-out-of-date noodles was quite unpleasant. Couple this with the regular needless all night benders that I'm slowly getting used to here, means that I'm glad I brought all the drugs with me... Mmmm Strepsils.

Oww, negative talk. OK, it's mainly the weather that's causing this mild ire. Despite all that complaining I'm still enjoying it all. This could change: from Monday for a month the older kids are on school holidays. This means they still come to us in the afternoon, but also in the morning, so we all have several extra classes to teach every day. Overtime though. Think of all the lovely wons.

Lastly, spare a thought for all the people at Seoul mud festival this weekend. I can't decide if lots of rain is good or bad for a festival of mud.

Friday 18 July 2008

Like Japan? Yep, a bit. But no.

I'm currently listening to TMS, eating Marmite on toast. Only when I look outside and notice that it's dark and there are Koreans everywhere do I realise I'm actually not in England. I had kimbap for dinner too. You don't get that in East Anglia, no.

Kimbap. It's sushi, but it's not. If you've been keeping up to date with the Asia-Pacific region news in the last week or so - and if not why not? - you will know that Korea-Japan international relations are, and have been since the bloody bastards occupied us, shit. So elements of Japanese culture, despite being prevalent here, are kind of disguised... Koreafied. Kimbap for one, and also the aforementioned Noraebang. Singing Room: it's Karaoke, but it's private. Even I've been known to belt out several tunes a night, safe in the knowledge that my hideous ululations will be heard by nobody but the few people I know, and who I know are as drunk as me. They're open 24 hours too. Ever get the normally unquenchable urge to sing Eleanor Rigby in a small dark room into an echoy microphone, and then get percentage score for your efforts, at 5am in the morning? Come to Korea.

There's a Noraebang in the basement of our school building, so obviously whatever time of the day I walk past the stairwell I can hear the offensively loud K-pop that is played to entice people in. What's disturbing is that since I arrived on the 30th of June - that's getting on for three weeks ago - the same song has been played, on a loop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Or at least whenever I've been past. It poses several questions about the psychological state of the people that work there... Does the Clockwork Orange's Ludovico Technique not spring to mind? If you heard the song you'd agree: it's pretty horrific. If you heard the song more than ten times, you'd be dashing your brains out on the steps. A ten hour shift, six days a week? Hmm.

I was going to post some pictures today - I went to Dongdaemun market this morning - but my camera didn't work. I guess the battery is empty. I hope that's the problem. So apologies for the blocks of faceless text. I'm going places this weekend, so will provide photography. If I can't fix it, I will draw what I see.

Sunday 13 July 2008

Job

I've been here two weeks. As requested, some (rather bland) notes about working conditions.

My job is broadly, and given other jobs I've had, comparatively speaking, good. I work from 9.30 until 6, though I usually get in early to plan my first few lessons, and I have, depending on the day, several free periods, on top of a 40 minute lunch. Basically Mondays and Fridays are busier than the middle of the week. My first lesson is fine. I suppose the kids are still half asleep. Then I have a double lesson with a bunch of wankers: unruly boys, unfocussed girls, one oddball that cries every single day - pretty much no likeable characters in that one. Finish with that though and I'm over the hump, especially on Tuesday and Thursday. I then teach a class of four five year olds who are pretty damn clever. Sometimes when they do go a bit mental I have to remind myself they are actually only five in western age. I probably couldn't spell 'xylophone' at their age. They can.

In the afternoon the kids get older. They come to our place after they finish normal school. Older does not equal better behaved, or necessarily smarter. I generally enjoy teaching all of them, all except one class that I have every other day, a class of 4 boys and 5 girls. I either have the four boys in four separate corners with their hands in the air, or take them individually outside and give them the hairdryer treatment. The girls pay attention usually and I feel bad that I can't give them enough attention because I'm repeatedly handing out admonishments of increasing volume and desperation to Matt, Ben and Aaron. Forty minutes a day though. I can handle that.

I have a better class after these - I can chat with them about anything and they always have interesting things to say. Last thing, I either have a class of 10/11 year olds who hardly speak any English, but aren't bad guys, or a 1-1 with a 16 year old girl who's lived in Tunbridge Wells for the last few years, so is near fluent in conversational English. We practise writing and talk about England. Fridays, I have a 20 minute lesson at 6pm which, since I couldn't find the right place on the tape, we have yet to actually do anything. I'd better get the tape sorted for next week, really.

I leave tired, but feeling surprisingly good. Still, I haven't been teaching for two weeks yet. Things will change in the next fifty. So er, watch this space.

I drink ESL Milk

How many other professions have their own milk? Other than.. farmer? Few.



Had to share that.

Friday 11 July 2008

I don't have kidney disease

Last Tuesday I went for my medical, which every teacher at ECC has to undertake. Wednesday this week, I went to collect my results. Upon arriving, I was ushered away up the stairs and told there was a problem. The nurse knew no further explanatory English; I waited for the doctor. A few minutes later I went in to see the doctor, and the first thing he said was "something something something hangul?" I shook my head negatively. The second thing he said, after a pause, was "ah, you have-uh kidneydisease-uh." And smiled. It turns out I had to have more tests at a cost of 50000 won. 25 quid. Had no money on me. Had to go home.

Because I was so long at the hospital my manager rang them to find out what was happening. I ascertained more from her than I did at the hospital: I probably didn't have kidneydisease-uh - my urine sample showed a slightly higher than usual creatinine levels, probably just an oxymoronic normal abnormality, which meant I needed to go back.

Anyway, I did and I am OK. I knew that anyway, I mean I feel fine. I was pretty certain that if I had renal failure I'd have noticed. I may know the reason my results were a bit skewed, too. When I went to have my test last Tuesday, I didn't, as requested, eat or drink anything for 12 hours. Anything. Not even water. Food, booze, fair enough, but water? I assumed this was a Korean thing, didn't complain. Blitzed my eye exam, dental check, hearing test, BMI, X-ray and blood, but got around to the sample stage, and there was nothing doing. Countless little disposable paper pockets (no cups here) of water, and forty five minutes, later, still no dice. I managed to squeeze as much as I could into the cups, the pressure of doing so blatently led to my cultivating a small amount of kidney disease, but just at that particular moment. So says Dr Michael-Teacher.

Anyway, that's disgusting. Next time I'll talk about noodles or something.

Sunday 6 July 2008

Love motel



My first two nights in Seoul were spent in the odd but quite comfortable Four Seasons motel in Suyu. When I got there I was given a brick of a keyring with no key attached. The reception man knew no English, but my manager Miriam told me I didn't need a key. After Miriam had left it took several animatedly gesticulated explanations to convince them that I needed to lock my door.

The ceiling was adorned with a space scene, and there were glow in the dark paintings of landscapes in the hallway. Still the aircon was amazing and I had a 42 inch plasma tv. Jetlagged, I didn't sleep well, and with 100 channels of people I couldn't understand advertising things and partaking in odd gameshows (and having sex) I spent most of the early hours glazed-eyesedly channel flicking. Eyesedly? I did manage to find the Euro 2008 final at quarter to 4, so it wasn't all bad. Finally got to sleep at around 6, and was up at 8 to go to school. Mmmm.

Saturday 5 July 2008

Settled

Since my last post, some things have happened. Today, I bought a fan. I have an air conditioner, but it's positioned around the corner and at the furthest point from my bed, and is aimed down the side of the fridge. I also started teaching properly, but more on that later. I cooked my first meal on my gas dual hob. Unfortunately, it was no gastronomic masterpiece. Here is what happened: there was some food on my shelves when I arrived. I assumed, since the previous occupant had moved out the day I moved in, that this was for eating. No. It was off. Some of it went off in 2006. I only found this out after I'd returned from the Korean Tesco - Home Plus - for basics. Bread, beer and Frosties. So I arrived home, expecting to cook up something tasty, like noodlesoup or stuff, and was confronted with a feast of expired food, and... Spam. I hadn't eaten all day. I made Spamghetti.

I did, luckily, buy some hot sauce, though. Hot sauce makes everything edible.



Last night, the six ESL teachers at our school met at the local meeting place, a 24 hour convenience store on the main street, with the intention of going for something to eat. We didn't, in the end. We just had soju, and went to noraebang. Noraebang is Korean karaoke, only you hire a cosy room just for you and your friends, and soju is a little green bottle of hate. More on both at a later date.

Teaching. I've had two full days of classes now. Mixed bag. I have a class in the morning - twice in a row - who try my patience like nobody has tried my patience before. They are shits, the lots of them. They're either fighting, running around, shouting at each other in Korean and talking back to me, or the other extreme, lying prostrate and motionless on the floor or crying. They're by far the worst. Every other class has its redeeming features. I have the pleasure of talking with some ridiculously advanced 5 year olds twice a day, and a class of mischievous but extremely intelligent and focussed-when-they-need-to-be elementary school dudes, who I have to say are my favourites. Or as they'd say: favorites. I can't get them to spell the correct way. They laugh at how I say tomato too. Curse the North American dominance of the ESL business. It's 50/50 at our school incidentally (although the other two Englishers are a Liverpudlian and a Teessider. Poor kids. They already look confused..)

We've not had the sun here for a few days, and the smoggy-ish blanket of cloud enveloping the city is making for humidity akin to that of a sauna that has just won the award for being the most humid sauna in Sweden. Muggy. Tomorrow I'm going to go exploring. I have my tube map, I have my Oyster card-type-thing, and I have a Palinesque sense of adventure. I'm going searching for a three-holed adaptor plug!

Tuesday 1 July 2008

Hi Seoul

I'm in Seoul. I'm currently stealing wifi, which is a positive, but - this is the negative - I have no power, so I'm squeezing every drop of energy goodness from the laptop's battery. Quick typing... I'm having trouble finding a Korean-UK conversion plug. I may have to wait until the weekend to get to downtown Seoul where western goods are plenty.

Odd that I should start the blog with such a trite thing, as in the just-over-48 hours that I've been here I've done more than I could have managed into a week anywhere else.

First impressions. Seoul is good. Seoul is humid, very humid. People are many. If you like lights, you will like Seoul. No stars here. First two nights I stayed in a motel in Suyu. Pretty shoddy, but, paradoxically, came with a 42" plasma screen TV. Today I moved into my proper apartment in Junggye, which is also shoddy, but it's mine, and it has everything I could need: toaster, sink, cupboards, shower nozzle, leather chair, hobs, air con, mezzanine floor with bed, 'fridge-freezer, a door, toilet, window, table, smaller table, non-functioning television, and a hammer. Yep. In a month somebody in a better apartment is leaving, so I can move to their place. Quick note on Koren hotel TV. Channel 89 appears to show soft core pornography, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can literally watch jiggling breasts and a hairy bobbing man ass while you eat your breakfast, which, as a novelty is fun, but.. thinking long term it's probably best that I'm out of that place.

Work is fine, so far. I had been observing lessons, but today I was asked to teach my first class alone. I say class, it was in fact one girl, in for her first ever lesson at our hogwon, who'd lived in Surrey for the last few years and was as a result pretty fluent in conversational English. Because I had to do what the book said, we talked abut Harley Davidsons. Mmm. That was fun. When I take my first kindergarten class tomorrow, that, I'm guessing, will be far more challenging. But bring on the hyperactive 5 year olds. I'm ready.

As I type, a cockroach has just scuttled over the floor and under my chair. I got him with a can of HITE, one arm of what appears to be a duopoly of Korean lagers, along with CASS: 'sound of vitality'. That is the tagline. Hite's, 'Clean, crisp and fresh,' is far less quoteable.

My co-workers are all cool. No psychos. I replaced hirsute Floridian Chris. They are mostly American and Canadian, and one girl is from Middlesbrough. Another guy from blighty is arriving in Korea tomorrow. He was supposed to be on the same flight as me. Simiar visa problems apparently.

I have more to say, and photos to post, but two things are hindring me. Battery life and time. It's midnight here and I haven't had the best of sleeps since arriving. Come back to find out how Michaelteacher gets on with the kindies. That is, providing I can find a UK plug adaptor somewhere in this country.