Seoul Tower

I spent Saturday with none other than Chris Utton (Spud) and Patrick Duce (Yid). We started off with some brunch in the Gangnam area. A rather suspect meal was neatly presented on plastic trays; there was a soup, a sandwich, a basic salad drenched in a creamy sauce and a coffee. It did the trick. We then strolled around Gangnam for 30 minutes, stopping occasionally to take a photograph or ogle at the beauty of the occasional Korean women. A short taxi ride then took us to Itaewon where we played pool and drank beer for an hour. Another short taxi ride took us to The Seoul Tower. This was a genuinely pleasant experience. The cab driver was rather amusing. He had us in fits of laughter as he drove us right up to the tower. The road was getting smaller and smaller and the amount of people walking was growing twice the speed. There we were, three very young and fit chaps getting escorted to the last possible place a car could go - we were so embarrassed that we hid under our hooded jumpers.......
The tower itself is like any over tower in the world. Tall and had great views. I needn't go into too much extra detail. It was a hazy day as you can see from the picture. It was good to finally see the entire layout of Seoul though, being stranded on the ground day in day out, not knowing the plan of the city was getting frustrating..... so worry over!
Then another short taxi ride took us to Yongsan market where Yid purchased himself a Macbook. Then another short taxi ride and we were back in Itaewon. This is where we stayed all night.
A day in Seoul.

Open Classes.................................

I’ve been blabbing onto a few of you about my open classes for the last couple of weeks. For those of you in the unknown zone, it’s an opportunity for the parents to come and watch a class and then pass their judgements on every aspect of the day. Judgements can range from the amount of hair on my face to the crease in my show laces, oh and the way I teach of course. So from this you can imagine the kind of pressure that is apparent.

So I had two classes to present.

Red was first. My four year olds. I chose the lesson plan of “Ok, Kids, today we’re going to have a birthday party” (cue over the top enthusiasm in order to encourage the kids and get the parents off on the right foot). It worked. A few rye smiles from the parents as the kids don’t really respond as one would hope. Nevertheless I carry on. All goes well with the gentle introduction, touching on a familiar ground to get the kids relaxed. Then I begin the body of the lesson.

Before I carry on I just want to set the scene. We are all situated in a smallish classroom, no bigger than three Ford Galaxy’s (interior, with the seats down). There are 11 of us. 5 Kids, 5 parents (all Mum’s) and little old me. The kids are placed in front of me whilst mummies (one or two of them being yummy mummies) are in a military style curved line to my immediate right.

Ok, so I begin with a few key phrases and actions, again to get the kids active, all in aid of “baking a cake”. So far, so good. Then we come to the picture game, which is cleverly titled ‘The Picture Game’. I draw, they guess, they get it right, they get a sticker. At this point I now have a further three people watching from the door. One being my Boss, two being the school principal and thirdly the scheduler. The scheduler has a hand held camera and it seems to get bigger every time I turn around.

My drawings were comical, but clinical, to start with. Then Sean thought that a birthday hat was an upside down ice-cream. This sent the entire classroom into fits of laughter and sent me completely of course. I managed to salvage some dignity by making a fool out of myself by imitating what would happen if I wore an ice-cream on my head. Once this minor blip levelled itself out I realised I was sweating horribly from the tip of my hairline down to my top lip. The kind of sweat you know that other people can see it because you can see their reflection in the sweat drip as it goes past your eye – trust me look next time!!!! And we all know what happens when you know that they know that you’re sweating! You sweat more!!!!!

Nay bother though there was only as few minutes left. Just enough time to give them their cookies and stickers and get the hell out of there.....

Pink class was good, but not as interesting.

Few Things that have crossed my mind.

Nervousness - I have open classes on Thursday. The parents come in and watch you teach. The pressure is immense from the school. It's do or die it seems. It's all good fun but I must admit I'm experiencing a little nervousness.

Disbelief - I have now woken myself up twice at 4am to watch my beloved Spurs play. The first time was an epic 4-4 against Aston Villa in our 125th anniversary game. Fair enough. But last night I experienced a foul performance from our defense, yet again. This season so far is frequently sending me into disbelief. Answers on a postcard please!

Joy - I have purchased myself a Digital SLR camera. It has already brought me much joy and I haven't even been outside with it yet. Many exciting photographic moments to come I feel.

Anxiety - Pretty much every time I know I'm going to be eating a Korean BBQ. I know I have mentioned my delight for them very recently, but I can stress enough, just how good they are. When David and I decide we are going to have a BBQ (this usually happens about 45 minutes before we start eating) I get this wave of anxiety. It's lovely!

Laughter - I have started to humor some of my classes. It seems some of them have an equal sense of humor to me. One girl, aged 10, literally cracks up into fits of laughter at my jokes. And I'm the same at hers. However, I do have a feeling that we are both laughing at very different things.

Red Class

Went on a science trip today. Well it was a space adventure park if you like. Lots of things to do, to watch and to experiment with. There was a huge spaceship bouncy castle which I stupidly went into and struggled to get out again. Also there was a big show where the presenter guy talked to the kids (our whole school and 2 others) and said what happened in a spaceship when it's on a mission. They then begun asking for volunteers. I had just come back from the toilet at this point and didn't realise what was going on, so to encourage my kids I put my hand up, not realising that the Korean speaking presenter had just asked for a teacher volunteer. So up I went. I was demonstrating how astronauts sleep..... standing up!
It was OK.
Picture is of my Red Class, the younger of the two classes.

Korean BBQ's

I want to tell you all how god damn nice Korean BBQ’s are. Not only is all the food that you’re provided with delicious but the experience is a fantastic one. I have never had so much enjoyment within a single dinner time. OK, so let me start from the beginning, as that makes best sense.

It’s only about 15 seconds from the moment you sit down that you’re presented with an entourage of side dishes. Most of them are unknown in substance, but I will hazard at some guesses rather than actually researching.

There’s always a watery soup with a few rogue leaves floating on or just below the oily surface. It’s ok – it has a subtle fragrance that makes you leave it alone. Then there are a plethora of vegetables evenly spread over a number of roundly shaped china bowls. Cabbage, spring onion, red cabbage, more types of unknown cabbage, whole gloves of garlic, cucumber sticks, bean sprouts, etc etc etc…. AND then there’s the signature dish, Kimchi: Vegetables (standard mix of cabbage, white radish, and/or cucumber) commonly fermented in a cauldron of ginger, garlic, green onion and chilli pepper. All I can say is take a big mouthful to get the full effect.

Then comes the choice of meat.

Most places only have one or two types. I’m yet to find beef. So far chicken and pork have been served up!! I can’t describe the joy one gets from seeing your food ‘cook’ in front of you. The chicken comes ready marinated in a tasty, spicy, finger licking good sauce. When this hybrid is evolving before you eyes and nose your taste buds begin to salivate. Then you begin. You take a crisp lettuce leaf, fill it with all the above dishes, top up with some extra spicy sauce and then a chunky piece of chicken and then load it all into your mouth in one go! And wash down with a mouthful of professionally chilled beer.

Furthermore it all costs (including x2 beers) 9,000 won. Which is approximately £4.50.

Dead Man Walking

On Saturday I took a leisurely stroll around Dongdaemun Market when I came across this fella. He was also leisurely strolling around the market. However he was wearing hospital gear and was accompanied by a drip!! I couldn't believe my eyes. What was equally strange was that NOBODY, apart from me, seemed to think that it was a little peculiar. Everyone was just walking by and showed no emotion at all.......
Dongdaemun market is fantastic by the way...... Keen clothes shoppers would literally spend weeks around here.

Easy Life

Thought I would write a short piece on a few general things. School has been going pretty well recently. I'm now about to finish my 8th week. Over the last couple of weeks I have noticed that it's pretty much like any other job, in the sense that you have a good day, shortly followed by a bad one etc etc etc. Something that I haven't really experienced before, in the work place, is that in teaching you're only as good (or bad) as your last lesson. You can never relax with these kids. You have to be on the ball on all the time. I'm talking about Kindergarten of course, Elementary is a different situation........
Anyway, enough drivel - check out the picture above. This was one of my 45 minute classes today. I got them to write their own version of a story we have been reading. The above example is mine - brilliant huh???!!! Can I draw or can I draw???!!!!
But hey, what others jobs in the world can you spend a full 45 minutes, drawing and writing this kind of stuff. Jealous??? I would be if I was you!!
(I tried to draw me swimming, but I am pathetic at drawing heads and bodies, so I thought I could be diving - creative)
Also today, I had a 'Free Talking' lesson. I think I mentioned this some time ago. Basically a double lesson with both Red and Pink class to talk about anything. Today I spoke about 'Family'. Couple of choice pictures below of them doing their family trees.....

Thrilling...

So my experience with the 5 Korean ladies was certainly nothing to shout about. It was, as expected, another chance for them to read to me and try to convince me that my life can and should be better - if only I would find a god, oh and follow him.
I did however get to see what it was like inside their prayer room.
I was taken upstairs to a reasonable sized room, you could probably fit 175 chairs in the room, with a thin stage acting as focal point. It was empty though. We walked through here and then into a small room. They read, I listened, I made my excuses and they escorted me out back through the prayer room. BUT it was now 7:18 and it seems that Oryudongs' Christian population had descended upon the prayer room. I had around 60 eyes (OK make that 120, as everyone has two) following me as I embarrassingly found the exit.
So a little experience if you like.
Something a little more interesting was the building above. Advertising eat your heart out!!
I think you can just see the odd window here and there........... and even some of the windows have a form of advertisement on them.

She thought I was someone else!!

1359 mcg of beta-carotene

I mentioned a few weeks back that every day surprises me with yet another eye opening experience. Things that make me stare, smile, frown, chuckle etc. An experience can be as simple as a Korean crossing the road in a unique way or a taxi man coughing in such a way that it triggers some kind of reaction that’s alien to my UK formatted brain. A few tasters below.

A kid fell off his bike whilst crossing the road. The road was 6 lanes wide and it was busy. The kid went mental. He was screaming at another kid, whom I think was a friend. I feel he may have caused the fall. The lights went green, but matey was still screaming and now he had turned as anger onto his 2 wheeler, kicking it a few times…. It was an eerie moment – passers by stopped and stared.

A swaying moped carrying one Korean man (aged 65-75) and about 8 ft of cardboard boxes.

Sitting in a Korean bar and suddenly the lights dimmed and then disco lights started thrashing around and then happy hardcore music filled the air. I was sitting with some Koreans – they translated the change in atmosphere to “It’s Korean party time” – it lasted around 10 secs. After, normality resumed.

But I’m now getting to my point. Yesterday I came across something that delighted my day and the moment will live with me like no other experience.

I found a new area of shops within spitting distant of my apartment. I started strolling around and I came across a small supermarket. On roaming aisle after aisle I came to the vegetable and salad section……. I at last found some Broccoli. Most of you will know that I like Broccoli. It’s a very good vegetable that is easily cooked and supplies one with great levels of nutrition. I quote “Not only does a cup of broccoli contain the RDA for vitamin C; it also fortifies your immune system with a hefty 1359 mcg of beta-carotene”.

I have been striving for some, familiar, immune system enhancing goods for some time now….. It may seem like small thing, but those are the best….. I did have to hide my sheer delight (or should I say overreaction) as the shop was quite packed….. he he…..

A picture for proof.