I arrived.

Safe and Sound.


The flight was pretty much a formality. Two hours of tailed wind assisted flying from Heathrow to Helsinki, was followed by another two hours of transit at a very relaxing departure lounge at Helsinki. Then a very easy 8 hours and 30 minutes from Helsinki to Seoul. Whilst I was drinking out in London with my friends on the Friday night, exactly 36 hours before my departure time, Dad was sat at home checking me into the flights. Amazingly, he managed to get an exit seat. I've always walked past 'those' people with all 'that' leg room they have. Never thought that would be me. It was a luxury, and one that I would wish upon anybody close to me. It took me a while to get used to it though, I'll be honest. My mindset before any flight is simply, usually, "this is going to be uncomfortable", more often than not it is, but not as bad as one had first imagined. This time I went in thinking, "this is going to be as comfortable as sitting at home watching TV", but it wasn't, it's still a flat, straight, small, rigidly formatted chair, just with a little more leg room, one can only stretch their legs so far. But, big advantage was being able to walk forwards from my chair, when I wanted to, being able to fully stretch my legs out and up into the air, and behind my head if I could, and wanted to. Go to the bathroom, exactly, and when I wanted to, not when the person next to me shows some sign of being ‘possibly ok', and unfazed to be moved. All in all, a good flight.

Oh, Finnair have cameras around the outside of the plane, so at any stage of the flight, including take-off and landing, we could look ahead or below the aircraft. Genius idea…..


Once arrived, it was straight onto the hour long bus to central Seoul. These buses, well, all buses, subways, trains, taxis, cars, EVERYTHING in this country has heated seats in the colder months. So, I sat, and slowly started to cook my backside whilst taking in the changed surroundings. Three months away, you'd think everything would be the same. Nope! This is an upandcoming BIG Asian city, they don't sit back. Roads, buildings, junctions, areas, stretches etc that had just started to form when I left, were now fully upandrunning. Was it only three months that I was away???

Tuesday morning I took a trip down memory lane and popped into my school. The school I spent two fabulous years at, teaching, playing, messing around, singing, dancing and generally having the absolute time of my life. On a scale of 1-10, of how excited I was about going back, most would know that it was an out and out 10, no question. I had been having these very peculiar dreams in the past few weeks, leading up to my return. The same dream played itself out about 3 times. It went like this. I would walk up the stairs to the school. Go in. Say hello to all the staff and teachers. Reminisce. Then I’d start to walk around the corridor and peak into the classes to see my beloved kids working away. When I looked into the classrooms, I began to notice that they had all gone, and they’d been replaced by horrible children from my middle school, when I was a kid. A couple of old favourites would be there, and I’d ask them “where is everyone?”, and they would give me blank faces, as if to say “who and what are you talking about?”…. So, in my dream, I began to think that the last two years was all a dream. Deep filled crust of anxiety styled dreaming there.

Anyway, the dream was only a dream. Most of the kids were still there. Top three material Sarah (although her reaction to me returning puts her firmly in position 1, as all time greatest kid to have ever walked). She was playing the Melodian instrument with her classmates as I walked in. The Melodian is a piano/keyboard type thing, that you blow into to create the sound, whilst tapping the keys. So, she was sitting down in a line as I walked in. She was concentrating on playing her tune. Then she noticed me. Still blowing into her mouth piece, her eyes bulged, but she managed to keep in tune and concentrate on her teacher. True Korean hard working ethic maintained. As the tune finished, the smile came sweeping across her face, then she stood up and started to giggle and do a little Sarah-like dance, very hard to explain, but it stops her from getting too excited. So a dance to shake off her excitement I guess. Then she ran over and demanded a hug. Awesome kid. She then, along with a random rabble of old favourites continued to follow me wherever I went, pulling on my legs, arms, anything that dangled at a 5/6 year old height, for the entire morning. Lunchtime, I had to walk around with my tray, eating here there and everywhere. Each kid asked me, “Toby Teacher, today, eat lunch, where?”, so I had to do that rounds.

Sadly, Angela, who also makes the top three wasn’t there. Her mother has taken her out for a month as a precaution to the swine flu epidemic. But she’ll be back there soon, and so will I, for another visit. Decision on going back to work there still yet to be made. Time will tell.

My room is tiny. Smaller than I had hoped. But, I’m not going to complain. I have a room, I have shelter, I have running water, food, internet, a bed, clothes, money, health. This three months living in a box will finely tune and educate my future living style. I’ll go from this dog house to a royal palace and appreciate it like a dog coming across a half eaten Big Mac on the pavement.

The location is outstanding. I have everything and more on my door step.

One weekend to go before I start being a student. I’ll update after my first day, which is Tuesday.

Goodbye.