The last week and week before that, and possibly some time before that, also.

Kelly is asleep. She dreaming about Toby Teacher, not being her Teacher anymore. Painful!

An informative compilation blog on the last couple of weeks of my life

Jeremy (seen in pic above) - He's 5 years old. I asked him to draw his dream classroom. I suggested an ice cream machine, big pillows, lots of toys, sweet makers, milk man, lots of other things that all kids in our modern world love. I then suggested a big TV on the wall so he can watch cartoons all day long. He frowned at me, with a look of absolute disgust, then continued to draw a bookshelf full of books. Fair enough.

Sarcasm - I was getting into a taxi with my secret girlfriend, haha. We were going to a supermarket that was quite close, but too close to walk, plus we didn't know exactly how to walk there anyway, so taxi was the only option. We got in, gave our destination, and sat back. The taxi driver then started ranting about how close we were and that we should get out and walk. OK, very nice of him to point us in the right direction, as it was only a 10 min walk. BUT, he wanted to charge us for his information. We had moved about 2 car lengths whilst he gave us the information, as we were stuck in traffic. He justified his charge of £1.25, like this "If I hadn't of given you the information, and drove to the supermarket, you would have to have paid triple this amount". What an arsehole. I was enraged. Why couldn't he just give us the information.

So, on leaving the taxi and giving him his money, I did an ALMIGHTY sarcastic bow. As you know Asians bow to everything, they would probably bow to a pigeon in Trafalgar Square. So, I thought I would vent my anger by closing the door, then maneuvering myself into his eye line, then bowing enthusiastically. I was caught up in the moment, I had forgotten that behind me there were about 100 Koreans eagerly waiting for the stream of buses that come through the area. Oh well, I had the last laugh on the taxi driver.

New Look - Thursday was day one of the new semester. Kids throughout Korea all go up a grade in their respective schools. The country stands still as kids, mothers, teachers, head teachers, school directors etc etc brace themselves for a change of pace. Teachers will say goodbye to kids, kids will say goodbye to schools.

In private schools like mine, it's the same. As I've mentioned recently we were going to have some alterations to our format. Five teachers left and currently four have come in. The outstanding member, Sarah from the UK, is due to arrive in the next week. Currently we are all doing our part and covering her classes, which is unpleasant. Breaks are hard to come by, usually, so with extra substitute classes, life could and should be better.

BUT, my new kids are good. The biggest bonus about my two new Kindergarten classes is that they're at the same level. In the past 18 months, I've taught different levels. Teaching two levels requires two complete sets of curriculum and therefore two complete sets of ideas. Now, I can create one lesson plan and utilise that plan for both classes. Therefore my brain consumption has been sliced in half, literally. It's good news.

Saliva - Over the last few weeks I have found myself salivating when thinking about food. I'm not getting fat or anything, although I have been slack on my gym life of recent. I'm talking specifically about my desire to eat Korean food. I've raved on, probably a number of times, to the point of your boredom, about how good Korean food is, but it's getting silly. The craziest thing is I have probably only tried about 20% of what the country has to offer. What I have tried is just beyond my taste buds. I feel sorry for them. Imagine something being subjected to something that it likes too much, three times a day, and not getting tired of that thing, but also knowing that you aren't able to do it all the time (in my case, for fear of becoming a big fatty with a big rice belly), it's hard. I sit at work, from about 2:30, which is when my Korean lunch has fully digested, until 5:30, which is when I finish work, thinking about what I'm going to eat tonight, and even more so about, what I sadly won't be eating tonight. Luckily most dishes and cuisines are of a healthy nature, so the occasional over indulgence doesn't have too much of a negative conclusion.

I think this will do for now. A couple more pictures for you.


Jebu Do. This is ________


This is me, cooking Korean food. I'm licking those lips of mine!!


Did I mention that Roseanne is alive??!! Seriously, she came back from the dead.

Doom and Gloom

Koh Lanta, Thailand.

As the 'chilly and breezy winds' of my second South Korean winter are subsiding, I'm hoping my lack-luster attitude at work is going to accompany them. I have been lazy lazy lazy in more ways than one. A few changes that confirm my slight drop in form are as follows. My bedside book is collecting dust, I've started playing scrabble on-line again, I go the gym twice a week rather than three times a week, I've been editing a lot of old photos recently, I'm eating less food, but more ice-creams, I have worn the same t-shirt two days on the bounce a couple of times over the last few weeks and finally, I paid my rent on time this month, rather than early. A slight rise in general laziness (not reading books, not washing my clothes, playing games, eating bad food, not paying rent early, wasting time by editing images that don't need editing) all act as valuable evidence that, right now, I don't give a damn. This might coincide with a few structural changes at work. I think that when one stays within a company for a long period of time, one starts to pick holes. Holes that, to the newcomer/outsider aren't holes at all, they're merely things that have always been their, regular tunnels if you like. I find myself breathing a bit more deeply at work...... elongated sighs are creeping in more and more. Anthony Teacher had an opportunity to take a change of pace and change schools, as his contract was up. He took his opportunity and is leaving in 7 days. My change of pace was confirmed today with the notification that I'll be teaching two seven year old classes from the start of March. So hopefully this will be the DW-40 that I need to kick start my life again, and also matching this will be the arrival of Spring. Happy Days. I'm looking forward to reading a new book and hitting the gym hard again. Also, with going to the gym more frequently I can enjoy that extra ice-cream without it being a burden on my waistline and conscience. And finally, I can wear clean clothes to work and not be paranoid about sweating and smelling out the teachers room.


Me, Seoul.

It isn't and hasn't been all doom and gloom recently. My Korean is booming. I have injected myself with Korean grammar to the point of explosion, and furthermore overdosing on sentence making, with my newly acquired vocab and grammical structure knowledge. My come downs are brief but distracting as I realise the mammouth size of my task. Learning a langauge is 'oh so solid', in other words, very very difficult. One will get carried away with a weeks studying and start to think 'wow, I can do this'. Then reality slaps you accross the face like a big smelly freshly caught Tuna. There isn't an end to learning a new language. No-one can call themselves fluent in any langauge, not even in their own, it's too deep an ocean, too diverse and a forever changing world, is a langauge. Marine-Scientists are still finding new species the deeper they go and learning a new langauge I think has similar attributes. I can't see a completion to my learning of Korean, which is daunting. I just have to 'roll with it' and set myself weekly/monthly goals. By the way I have bought tickets to see Oasis in Seoul.

Around you are the images that I spent time editing. Nothing drastic, I just flirted with the brightness, contrast and color of some images. Enjoy.

Tokyo.

Fish Market, Tokyo.

London, August, 08.

Jebu Do, South Korea.