Sunday, December 27, 2009

The last few weeks have passed.


 
Little bit of snow 


I'm dreadfully sorry for the lack of updating. I have been awfully busy with adapting to the monstrosity that is the climate of this country. That has had me on the back foot for the last 7 days (originally wrote this a week ago, so sickness was actually 2 weeks ago now). Sunday morning I woke to the feeling of a regular hangover that would be issued to any normal foolish person that drinks too much, of this, that and the other. Thing is, this time, I had a very sombre, tranquil and neatly paced evening.

We kicked off with some nicely fried and spiced chicken drum sticks with a few chilled beers, then onto a birthday party at a house, with a couple of cans of chilled beers, then final stop, two more beers before bed. Went home feeling fine. Woke up feeling like I had spent the entire previous day and a half swimming 20 metres down in a pool of Scottish, forty year old, whiskey. My head felt like there was a sand bag, or two, sitting at the back of my sore strewn head. Lifting these sand bags wasn’t easy and resulted in very little movement from around 6am-11am. Then someone kindly sent me a message on my phone. I picked it up and opened my eyes. The result was an instant spin of the innards of my skull and then a very urgent dash to the kneeling position, around my ‘loo’, in my bathroom. The next few hours followed in this pattern, with any light exertion of my eyes, head or brain causing panic and muscle excitement from neck to waist.

Basically I had been struck down with something nasty. The headache stayed for a couple of days, as did the stomach muscle strains. The sickness was just for the Sunday. The next few days saw me hitting the Korean health sections in the corner shops. Stocking up on Ginseng juices, soups, candies, granules, etc etc. Saturday morning arrived and all was well.

Despite this fall in spirits I managed to have a very productive week of studying. Confidence was very high during this week. Still speaking like a 4 year old Korean, but still enjoying the classes and the life of a language student. My week goes something like this…….

Monday to Friday – Wake up at 8:45. Breakfast, shower, leave around 9:15. Get to school for about 9:30-9:40 – depending on weather I have bought a coffee on route or not. 10:00-11:00 speaking and grammar class. 11:00-12:00 more speaking and listening. 12:00-13:00 reading, listening and little bit of writing. 1:15 go to the University restaurant for some very decent and cheap food with a few of the students from my class. Once lunch is done then it’s off to a coffee shop for 1-2, or maybe, like today, 3 hours of studying.

So that is standard scheduling. Morning till evening is set aside for studying, evenings go as follows.
Monday night – language exchange with two Koreans. 45 minutes in Korean, for me, then, 45 minutes in English, for them.
Tuesday night – no plans. Usually get to together with a couple of mates for dinner and catch up.
Wednesday – round two of language exchange with two Koreans, as mentioned above.
Thursday – two hours of teaching English to a Korean.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, as true as us western folk are I leave this open for festivities away from studying/work, although the more I drink, the less I want to drink, so might be occupying these leisure hours with something a little more brain powered. What a change that would be?!!

It’s now Christmas Day morning (now I’m editing this on Sunday evening, 27th). I had written most of this blog last week (and been editing it ever since), but then delayed publishing it as I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Today I will be having a very traditional Christmas, Korean style (I did). In Korea families don’t really get together, it’s more of a couples event. I don’t have a partner these days, so to have a traditional Korean Christmas was looking like an unlikely option. But then two nights ago (actually now 4 nights ago, as I’m editing) I was chatting to a lovely Korean lady in a bar and we decided it would be nice for all involved if we met on Christmas Day for lunch. So, I have a date on Christmas Day (It went well). Everyone back home will find this very peculiar, but as they say, “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”.

Up to present time now. Boxing Day was relaxed and productive. I went and bought an electronic dictionary to assist in my journey of learning another language. It has helped me immensely already. Boxing Day afternoon I went to a coffee shop and utilised it successfully. Then again today, I went to a coffee shop and got some educational usage out of it. Very useful indeed.

Today, Sunday, I went to a new shopping bonanza, in Seoul, called Times Square. It’s a department store, come entertainment village, of epic proportions. The first thing I thought on arrival was, North Korea really did make the wrong choice back in the 50’s. It’s a ridiculous exhibition of wealth and class. My goodness, I have never been so gob-smacked, at such glutinous, but gorgeously stylistic shopping mall-esc architecture. I got a few snaps, here are a couple just to give you a taste. 



Very questionable, but equally interesting sculpture, outside one of the many entrances and exits.


Week ahead consists of more studying and electronic dictionary usage, and of course some research into some New Years revolutions.

What are yours?

2 comments:

  1. Merry Christmas Buddy!
    Where is this monster of a shopping mall? I wanna go! x

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  2. It's in Yeoungdumpo. About 15 seconds walk from the still existing HUGE department store. Another thing I love about Korea. Their ability to build, build, and build regardless of surroundings. There's a new Holly's Coffee next to the existing one. They haven't knocked through. Two separate coffee shops with their own cashier and everything. Baffled.x

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