Lunar New Year

Today is Lunar New Year. You may have heard on the news about Chinese New Year. Same thing, essentially. It's the most important Korean holiday of the year, it's like Christmas around here. My neighbourhood is pretty deserted and all the shops are closed - all bar McDonalds, Starbucks and Domino's, and all the 24 hour conveni-stores. Consequently today I've had a cheeseburger, a pizza, some hot chocolate and some beer. Oddly, however, fruit vendors are out en masse. I also have some tangerines for later.

It's nice to have a four day weekend but it was our intention to do something, to go somewhere. We tried to book a room at a ski resort but underestimated the amount of Koreans who were planning the same thing much much earlier than us. Ah well, another time.

In other news, there are only three days left of the intensive schedules, which is great. I'm looking forward to getting my three hour lunches back. I'll miss the classes I've taught this month, especially 14 year old one-to-one Tom. He means I'm in school from 9am til 7.30pm on Tuesday and Thursday as his class isn't until 6.45, but he's great. His knowledge of English football is awesome, and he tries hard to get through the book we do as quickly as possible so we can get onto the real reason he's there - to talk football. I can even forgive the fact that he's a Man U fan - with Park Ji-Sung it makes sense.

That's it. Happy Seollal, readers.

Halfway

More than that.

I've completed six months and a week and a half of this year-long thing, so here are some brief thoughts.

Being at home seems a distant memory, but the first few weeks in Korea seem aeons ago. When I reminisce about those humid, exciting times, so much has changed. It's certainly become chillier (-8 yesterday in Hongdae.) I'm feeling pretty good about my ability to make kids learn stuff and still have fun and that, a far cry from when I was being observed. Kids are still quitting but I'm confident that's not about me. Everyone's kids are quitting. The three guys I work with are cool, and have certainly made the living in another country thing easy as hell. 

Though I've hardly mastered the Korean language, or even learnt basic phrases, I possess the very, very barest essentials. I can say the following:

• Hello
  
• Goodbye
  
• Yes
  
• No
  
• Thankyou
  
• Tuna kimbap please
  
• One, two, three, five.. maybe seven
  
• Hundred
  
• Thousand
  
• How much?
  
• Shut up
• Merry Christmas
  
• and shovel
  

I have, however, become an expert in internationally-understood gesticulations, so who needs words?

This blog, too, conceived as a means of letting people back home know what I'm doing conveniently and with pictures, has had visitors from every continent, from Peru to Malaysia to Reunion island to Kazakhstan. So hi you lot.

I'm going to bed.

Birthday

Like racehorses, Koreans get one year older on New Year's Day. So although I had my birthday on Wednesday, I've been 24 for a week and a half.

Midweek, my birthday passed without much fanfare and without any alcohol, because firstly I'm a professional and secondly, I know the drawbacks of teaching rowdy kids with a hangover. Weekend will probably contain a certain amount of decadence. I kept it from the kids too, though it was leaked to one class, a class I've only been teaching for a week on the new intensive* schedule. The next day, one girl presented me bar of chocolate with this brilliant message attatched.

It says "To Michael Teacher. Hello I'm Sarah. Happy birthday to you. When you teach me I am so happy. Whey you come ECC first I don't know your name but you teach me and I know your name. From Sarah." (I resisted the urge to correct her grammar with my big red pen.)

The next day, today, having finished off what was left of my birthday cake (which had a tomato on it and was consumed with chopsticks), I went to work with the last of my birthday out of my system, not expecting to have to deal with any more of it. But Will, second from the left, evidently not wanting to be outdone in the impressing Michael Teacher stakes, had brought a whole carrier bag full of sweets for a party during our lesson. What your see above is nearing the end of our saturnalia of sugar. That was fun. Though I wasn't too sure about the chocolate-covered sunflower seeds.

*Winter intensives started at the end of December. I probably wrote about summer intensives some time in summer, so go and look for that. The winter intensive schedule is a bitch - I'm in school from 9-7.30 two days a week, and only have one 40 minute break on the other three. But, as you'll have noted, I'm teaching some good kids, and the days fly. Plus, and I'm sure I've said this before somewhere, think of all the wons!

Japan

Over Christmas, I hopped across the East Sea to Japan. Japan is good.

Mt Fuji there. Not as close to Tokyo as cartoons would have you believe.

We never left Tokyo, and in a sense it was was obviously quite similar to Seoul, but here's the difference: everywhere you went, things were just a bit more exciting. Crazier, in a good way. And more expensive. Freaking expensive.

Before I applied for this job I had an interview for a position in Japan. Didn't get it. The interview was a farce. Anyway, the monthly wage I was quoted was however many yen 1000 English pounds buys you. I spent half that in four days in Tokyo. OK, I was on holiday and was using that as an excuse for some exorbitance, but it still makes you think how I'd have lived on that wage. I get the equivalent of the yen wage I was offered in won here in Seoul, which allows me to live like a king - and still I've bought a laptop and had two holidays in the last six months. I'm going start saving money this year.

First night in Japan was strange. We'd booked one night's accommodation in a hostel in Asakusabashi, which is nothing like Tokyo should be. It was suburban. There were no lights, few people, not much going on. Bars were non-existant. The next day, which was Christmas, we went elsewhere.

Shinjuku, actually. Shinjuku is much more like the Tokyo you see on TV and futuristic anime. Lights, people, pornography: everywhere. Christmas lunch, incidentally, was fish and chips, and, later, a salmon pizza. Neither were pleasant. Aside from the food aspect, it didn't feel especially like Christmas. Sure there were Japanese dressed up like Annual Gift Man and, y'know, some tinsel here and there, but it was 18 degrees, and I went to an arcade. Plus, people were taking the decorations down at 9pm.

Christmas Lunch

Then we spent another night at a hostel followed by a night in a place called Kimi Raikkonen. I mean Kimi Ryokan. Both were in Ikebukuro, which was good, too. Cut a long story short, I'm going back one day. When I have shitloads of money.

As promised, I'm going to give the blog some much needed photography.

Rainbow Bridge

We got on something like DLR to get to here. Nicer than London Docks.

The view from halfway up Tokyo Tower, which, incidentally, is the same as the Eiffel Tower, just a bit bigger and red.

Shibuya Crossing, the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world or something. You've probably seen it on Lost in Translation.

Day 1: I slept in a pine coffin.

Tokyo Tower. Told you it was just like the Eiffel Tower and red.

Condomania. It sold phophylactics and other phallus-oriented stuff. This was in a mall, in the same building as a two kids' theme parks. Oh, Japan.

Korean Television

Two posts tonight. I'm in a blog mood. 

I have cable TV: 86 channels of movies, sports, other stuff and game shows. Lots of game shows. Actually, about 78 of the 86 channels air game shows.

I think they're game shows. Really, who knows?

Here's a snapshot of what's on on a weeknight . I really have no idea what I'm watching for the most part. If anyone reading this wants to point out any glaring inaccuracies, please feel free.

Channel 3 - Korean tourists in Japan, looks a bit like Wish You Were Here. They're looking at koi carp and posing for photographs with a bronze bust of man near a ship. Just what I plan to do next week.

Channel 7 - Shopping channel. Disappointly they're only flogging rice cookers tonight. Last week they were promoting something you eat that causes some kind of biblical enema, at least that what I gathered from the computer simulation of someone's intestines.

Channel 8 - Soap opera. These are always worth a watch for the often bafflingly amusing scenes that crop up. Currently there's an old dude staring dejectedly at a pharmacy. Not so good tonight.

Channel 10 - Ajuma Idol (?)

Channel 14 - Game show...? A woman appears to be making herself cry for the entertainment of a studio audience. What? To achieve this she's twisting the hairs on her temples? OK, now she's snapping chopsticks with her buttocks and picking up a fat man like a baby. I'm flicking channels.

Channel 18 - Super Action. Often shows watchable movies. Steven Seagal's Exit Wounds tonight though. Ow.

Channel 19 - What? Piers Morgan! Euugh, that was unexpected. It appears to be the Royal Variety Show. How odd. Off.

Channel 25 - Discovery Channel. Wait, it gets worse. Bear Fucking Grylls. I don't want to get started on him. He deserves his own post. His own blog.

Channels 34-37 are sports. One is showing a collection of own goals from English football from the last thirty years, another has international billiards. This stuff's hypnotic.

Channel 38 - Game show (?). This show appears to be on every day. All day every day. On multiple channels. It consists of perhaps five main guys, one of whom has peroxide blonde hair and is therefore instantly recognisable on this and countless other shows, performing arbitrary tasks. Tonight they're in a field, at night, taking hats, scarves gloves and boots from a box and putting them on. A man resembling a Korean Jesus is photgraphing them. What I can never fathom is how there's never a winner (though there's occasionally a loser). Watching it makes my head hurt because it's so confusing. Oh, now I think they're homeless men. Next.

Channel 42 - Man in a bakery, buying a cake.

Channel 43 - Monk, with a blackboard, doing maths.

Channel 51 - People playing computer games on TV. Like Gamesmaster with Patrick Moore, but a whole channel. Now it's the Sudden Attack master league.

Channel 63 - Golf channel. Golf, 24-7. Predominantly women's golf.

Finally, channel 86. This is a black screen with a white graph on it, labelled Cable TV Analyser, showing the MHz and the dBnV, whatever those are, along with the time, date and various other useless pieces of information. This is more hypnotic than the billiards.

Christmas in Korea

Just like back home, the buildings of Seoul are illuminated with gaudy plastic and colourful flashing lights. But, well, it's always like that. 

Christmas has crept up on me relatively unheraldedly. Nothing happened until December, which makes perfect sense, and since then I've been subjected to a few Christmas songs (but no Wizzard) and some tinsel but that's largely the extent of it. The churches are the only places to put any effort in in terms of decorations. I'm not one to shun the concept of Christmas - though I can see where Ebeneezer's coming from I really enjoy the food and the couple of days off work - it's nice though not have it rammed in your face.

At school however, you'd be forgiven for thinking Christmas had been cancelled. (It literally has been for the teachers: the annual Christmas meal we'd been told about has been shelved.) The place is currently undergoing extensive renovation meaning the thick carpet of dust on everything is the only vaguely festive thing on show. It's festive because it looks like snow. I suppose I wasn't expecting much but when you mention Christmas to the kids they do seem genuinely excited, and it's a shame not to share in their childish mirth. Especially when however many thousands of wons were spent on the Halloween decorations. 

There are Christmas activities tomorrow but I've inexplicably been left out of the fun, I'm just teaching normal lessons. To compensate I'm bringing "presents" for my homeroom class and sweets for everyone else. Presents is in inverted commas because they're pretty shit: I just went to Lotte Mart and spent W12000/six quid* on seven stocking fillers. But my children are easily impressed. One of the presents is a set of castanets. 

Hmm.

*July exchange rates. I'm not mentally strong enough to check what the pound is worth at the moment.

It started snowing earlier too. I could've experienced my first white Christmas had I not been leaving the country on Christmas eve. Can't envasage much snow falling in Tokyo either. According to the internet it was 17 degrees there today. I'm taking my shorts.

"Teacher, so... do some people love dead people?"

A question posed to me by Kelvin last week, Kelvin from my smart afternoon class.

My Friday class is currently all about strange creatures - the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, giant squids.. 'Bat Boy' - and last week we'd digressed onto the subject of zombies (or 'jombies'), which led to the electronic dictionaries being taken out. As I was explaining the concept of being undead, Jenny looked up the Korean word for corpse and showed Kelvin. A few seconds later a combination of amusement and horror passed over his face as he scrolled down a couple of entries in the list to the Korean word for, erm, necrophilia. It had a short description and everything.

Now how do you respond to that one? It's uncomfortable enough to explain away a question about sex.. normal, living people sex.. but there's no way to get around cadaver love.

OK. Next page, come on. First one to finish gets twenty stickers. Just don't ask me any more questions.

Not much to report

A day after last month's payday, I bought a new laptop, a holiday to Japan and a curry. I was consequently constrained by a tight budget which prevented me from doing all that much. Fortunately, I was able procure all five seasons of TV show The Wire, thus satiating my lust for entertainment without the need to leave my apartment. Sixty hours of my my life well spent.
I have been outside though - don't assume I've become a hermit - I've just been more localised. I've discovered chicken hofs. Chicken hofs are great. They sell fried chicken, and they sell beer, that's mostly it. I think. They may sell more, but the menu is all in Korean, and I can read what chicken is because it's the same as English. The one we frequent regularly is the immodestly named Best Chicken Hof, but there's as many, if not more than there are Noraebangs and English schools within a literal stone's throw.

This weekend was cold, very, very cold. Minus figures. This is not unremarkable, nor would it usually be much of an inconvenience: I quite like the cold, in fact my last few holidays have been to Nordic countries, and it's finally cold enough for me to break out my favourite sweater. However when the coldest day of the year coincides with the inexplicable disappearance of running hot water and heating, it gets a bit annoyong. It wasn't just that the water didn't get hot, there was no hot water. When you turned on the hot tap, nothing, literally, came out. Then, after the ouside had warmed up and everything, it came back. If this is going to happen whenever it drops below zero I'm going to have to complain. I mean, tell someone who speaks Korean to complain for me. Still don't have heating.

And it's not only the temperature that's been dropping: so are our numbers at ECC. The kids are dropping like flies, not through illness - not even through overwork which is commendable - just disappearing... to other schools, to concentrate on their elementary school exams, I don't know. The reasons are often unforthcoming and always vague. The kids themselves tell you nothing - they just cease to turn up one day, and after a couple of days of absence you have to go to your Korean partner teacher to enquire as to their whereabouts. Three afternoons a week in November I taught a class of 12 followed by a class of 8. These have now been respectively decimated to 6 and 4. In the first class I lost a lot of good guys, but I can't say I'm in any way concerned about the removal of half the second class. They were shit.

Right now I'm counting the days until the Japan trip, which will finally provide a reason to put some photos up on here. So apologies for all these lines and lines of letters. As it happens I'm meandering along quite nicely. My life is constructed with healthily equal amounts of optimism and pessimism, love and hate. You'll be aware if you know me that I'm very much the misanthrope and there's ample cause for, and opportunity for release of, those sentiments here, but its more than balanced with all the good things. Work isn't that taxing, I still have my grotesquely long lunches which, coupled with the well-structured blocks of between seven and nine 40-minute lessons a day, ensure that the days and the weeks flow with disarming haste. I was asked today what my plans were for next July. My reply was that it's seven months away and yeah, y'know, it'll work out.

But really, I should start weighing stuff up.

Promotion Day

Yesterday was the school's annual promotion day, and for our manager, the most stressful day of the year. For us, it was just a minor inconvienence that we had to go to work on a Saturday and give a minute-long speech about something to do with the curriculum.

Parents of potential new students were invited to see what ECC is all about, meet the teachers, see the classrooms, learn what books we use and so on, in the hope that they'd open their wallets. The majority of the school's money comes from this day so the manager was keen to make us seem as good as the other schools in the area (because from what I gather, other schools have a better reputation.. damn you to hell, Poly.)

We didn't see many of the potential new kinder recruits, but there were a few there: two boys with boundless energy and a propensity to throw things, a girl barely out of nappies who cried every time a foreigner looked at her, and a pretty odd kid who, while playing in her own little world, balanced a rotating assortment of plastic fruit on her head. The parents, the dads especially, all looked a bit bored, and apparently only a few signed up on the day. So we'll see how that goes.

After promotion day we went to a bar we'd not been to before, only a few minutes' walk away, but pretty well disguised. It's called Hey Hey Hey. I'd seen the sign for ages, but was unaware until recently what it actually was. On the sign there's a picture of seventies cartoon character Fat Albert, as in the one voiced by Bill Cosby, remember? I had to look it up. So, yeah. There's a bar in Seoul named after the catchphrase of a long-forgotten black American morbidly obese cartoon character. Interestingly inside the place there's no further reference to Fat Albert.

Open Lessons, Pepero Day

For the last month I've been teaching a 'special' lesson alongside my usual textbooks for two of my classes, at a significantly higher level than what the kids are used to, for the purpose of impressing their watching parents. We practiced every day, to the point that everybody became intensely bored with it and yearned for a return to the normal structure. But the parents don't want to see a standard lesson from the standard text book thereby giving an accurate representation of how their child is performing in school. No. They insist that we place them in battery cages and drill into their mushy heads twice a day the same regurgitated lesson for four long stultifying weeks.

Whatever. With my homeroom Cambridge 1 class we did the polar regions. I had them memorise how to spell Antarctica, where penguins live and who the first man to reach the north pole was, that sort of thing. We did the lesson last Thursday and it was a success, I think. No kids have quit yet, and I've been told that in the past, as a result of a substandard open lesson, they have.

Today I taught the prodigies in Harvard class the history of chocolate. They did quite well, considering they had to memorise and incorporate into sentences words like civilisation, conquistador, Xocolatl and Tenochtitlan (they're six). Jenny actually nailed 'Tenochtitlan' but came unstuck on the word 'milk'...

It was also unintentionally prescient of me to choose the history of chocolate as my open lesson, as today in Korea, it is Pepero Day. Although alliteratively connected, Peperos have nothing to do with poppies, and the celebrations are about as far removed from two minute silences as you're going to get. Peperos are biscuit sticks coated in chocolate, made by the Lotte conglomeration, given to "the special person in your life" on this day every year. Lotte thought up this celebratory day a few years ago, plumping for this date as written numerically it's 11/11, which, obviously, resembles four peperos. They're pretty basic to be honest, with little in the way of taste, but the kids can't get enough. And I, being their beloved teacher, have been showered with them. This flash video will explain nothing but click it anyway for further proof that Asia is just insane.


Remember: Dulce et decorum est... Pepero...

Hallowe'en

Today's Hallowe'en, in case you were unaware. Hallowe'en isn't generally 'celebrated' in Korea, but owing to the North American hegemony in the ESL business, it's become common practice in schools. I dressed up for the 31st of October at uni, most memorably as a vagrant (those were dark times) but never before or since, and was feeling decidedly phlegmatic about the whole occasion. I actually bought my costume, if you can call it that, at the stationery shop in the basement of my apartment building. I was a robot. I had a tinfoil-covered kettle box as a head, wristlets on my forearms, a miner-style headlamp attached to my chin and, dressed in black, I was covered from head to toe in silver stickers.

The stickers proved to be a mistake, as I was constantly surrounded by scavenging children.

Didn't have classes in the morning - instead we made containers to put sweets in, and spider themed cookies. These cookies involved two crackers housing a lump of peanut butter, into which were pressed six bifurcated Peperos, and Skittles for eyes. Peperos will be discussed later, probably on Pepero day. Only one student (Eric, see below) commented that spiders have eight legs, not six. We were short on Peperos.

Then we went trick or treating. Three parents volunteered to open their apartments to and provide bags of sweets for thirty kids (and their teachers), which is commendable. We went to the apartment of the best student from my homeroom 'Cambridge 1' class (Eric, see above) and I was able to see why he's the best student. The living room had a bookshelf filled, floor to ceiling, with ESL textbooks, kids' storybooks, Korean 'WHY?' books: they even had stairs to enable the kids to reach the top shelves. There were the English "useful expressions" we give out pinned to the wall, an extensive magazine rack full of more ESL goodies, and numerous maps on the wall, alongside photographs of exciting and educational days out. I'd describe it as a genius farm. Those kids cannot fail to become whatever they want to be.

Or so I thought. We taught classes in the afternoon, and Eric's 10 year old brother had to give a speech about eagles to his and two other classes, along with numerous teachers. He was the penultimate guy to go and bottled it a bit. I still have high hopes for Eric though, who's so far ahead of the rest of the class it's embarrassing.

Photos were taken, and may find their way on here at some point. Now I have to go out on the town. I have no costume, but I'm considering utilising the surplus silver stickers to create a glam jacket. Considering. I probably won't.

Some things that I do miss from home, and Seoul Land... again

Intending to follow on from my last post, I sat here for ten minutes trying to think of nine things I miss about home, and all I could muster was my dog, a greater variety of beer and the ready availability of sparkling water. Oh, and my family and friends, I suppose.

Three things I've experienced in the last week, quiz nights (we came third!), a curry and pro evo, would've made the list but I've been satiated. If I think of more, I'll just edit this post.

Thursday was curry and quiz night night in Itaewon, made possible only by the fact that instead of school we took the kindergarteners down to Seoul Land during the day. For more on Seoul Land look back to my post about it in mid-September. While looking after fifty kids meant we couldn't go on any of the big rides, I did get to on the baby-coaster. A guy called Alex wouldn't let go of my hand, so I was dragged on to keep him company. He buried his head in his lap and didn't release his white-knuckled hands from my forearm until I'd assured him that it was over. Cute. It was quite fun watching their faces light up with unrestrainable squealing glee (Harry), but the constant queuing got a bit dull. There were ten times more people there on Thursday than when we went in early September - on a Saturday. Since they were pretty exclusively schoolkids, of all ages, we concluded it was a Seoul-wide-end-of-season-let's-go-to-Seoul-Land-thing. It was still really warm though, as I found out at the end of the day when we took the kids on this huge white rubber hill-like arrangement. I ran around with the kids for half an hour and had literally the most fun I've ever had ever. Ever.

The two boys in the front here, Harry and Noah, look like they're having fun. Nathan (maths video Nathan) in the back car looks terrified. I just thought of another thing I miss a bit. Cheese. I'd love some cheese.

Nine things I don't miss

Following on from the last post, Hair, here's a list (off the top of my head before I go out this Friday evening) of things I've not missed since leaving the Vaterland. There may be a corresponding list to follow.

1. The aforementioned hairdressers

2. Public transport. You can cross Seoul for a few thousand won, and generally subway journeys are less than a pound. The base rate for taxis is W1900, about £1, which makes it practically cheaper than walking. Plus buses, despite the fact that the drivers accelerate and brake at such intense velocities that I've lost all sense of balance a few times, are every couple of minutes, clean and quick, and all night too.

3. Weather. Self explanatory. I still get home every night and sit in my pants with the AC on. I understand my parents have had the central heating on since July 15th.

4. 1471. It hadn't occurred to me until a friend happened to mention it, circumstances forgotten, but he was right. I don't miss it. Um. Next one.

5. The general pacificy of life here, even on a weekend night is really nice. Even in Woodbridge, my hometown, walking home from the pub on a Friday night was a dice with death. Or at least a dice with a drunk chav pushing you uncoordinatedly in the shoulder. In Seoul, you could walk home at 2am from one side of the city to the other wearing a Korea is Gay thirt and you'd be fine. Probably:
I'm yet to test this.

5. Saturday night TV. No idea what's going on on Saturday night TV here, but at least John Barrowman's nowhere to be seen.

6. British football pundits. Though a year without Lawro was always going to be tough, I'm enjoying the lack of Gray, Pleat, Townsend, Shearer, that BBC woman and Garth fucking Crooks. Here commentary consists mainly of shouting whenever a team gets in the penalty area, which is fine by me.

7. In pubs, you don't have to wait at bars, you sit down and press a button to call the beer providing Korean person. When they arrive with your beverage, they also lavish you with complimentary crisps and, maybe, nuts, because it's bad form to drink without edible accompaniment. Friday night at the King's Head is a distant memory.

8. Living with my parents. Not that I don't miss my parents, I just don't miss living with them.

9. Microsoft Excel.

Hair

I used to hate having my hair cut. Back home, I went as rarely as possible: it was overpriced, I had to sit and look at myself for half an hour, and I generally didn't get it how I wanted it. Also, the main drawback, I had to talk to a hairdresser.

In Korea, while I still have a big mirror placed inescapably in front of me, the fact that it's half the price of in Ipswich is a bonus, but having my own personal stylist who always makes my hair look good and doesn't speak a word of English means I'm now having my locks trimmed every four weeks. Included in the W14000 (£7) price are not one but two hairwashes, the second incorporating a ridiculously relaxing head massage. The head massage makes me consider going more frequently.

Talking of follicles, just before the trip to Juno Hair I shaved my four-week beard. I'd grown quite attached to it, as I tend to with facial hair, and was weeping as I hacked it off, though that may have been down to the blunt razor I used. My kids were unsettlingly obsessed with it, and demanded that they feel it on a regular basis. That was just weird, so it had to go.

100

I must stop writing blogs while over the limit.

Sober tonight, so as promised, here's my big, happy, superpositive blog entry. Starting from tomorrow I now have two-hour-long lunches on Tuesdays and Thursdays, three hours on Mondays and Fridays, and on Wednesdays there are three hours and forty minutes between my morning and afternoon classes. You may feel that such a bloated break in the middle of the day would be a bit annoying, but I'm quite looking forward to it. Why? I live a few minutes away from school so can go home, if I want. Even after I've planned my lessons for the rest of the day, there'll still be time to read a good chunk of my book, or even watch a film. I mean, on Wednesday, I could fit in Lord of the god damn Rings. I can just get so much more stuff done. For somebody that lacks motivation some of the time, a big period of free time in the middle of the day is just what I need. I might even start going to the gym. But don't hold your breath. Anyway. Tomorrow I plan go shopping for a phone.

Yeah, I've been in a foreign country for three months, made friends and not died, without the use of a mobile phone... in 2008. It's like being in 1997 again. To be honest I've quite enjoyed the ability to go dark when I feel like it, but I now feel it's probably time to get connected. Last night I lost everyone in the stampede at the station before the fireworks, and only rendezvoused through sheer luck half an hour later. There were apparently more than an million people in the area, so I had been preparing myself for a night of solitude. I lost people coming out of a club in Itaewon later that night too, and was about to get into a taxi on my own when they showed themselves. A phone, I concluded, would solve any recurrences of these social quandaries. Just have to find a salesperson with a basic grasp of English now.

New girl arrived last week, and has settled in ridiculously well. On her second night here she forewent galbi, choosing to meet us for sojuing and noraebanging (with, unprecedentedly, the school's manager!) and, following a trip to Nowon, proceeded to be the penultimate man standing at 7am the next morning. I know this because I was the last man standing.

..I think.

To finish on an optimistic high, I'll mention how I feel after what is today 100 days since I arrived in Korea (I haven't been counting the days, I just happened to work it out last night when Sean brought something up). This is how I feel: I feel great. I would list all the reasons, but jesus, if you want to know read the rest of the blog. Bye!!