It's back.

Just as one thought that the 3 month cold snap was coming to end, we get a brisk showering of snow once again.
The temperature started to creep up and above the zero mark. So much so that I even debated having a coffee alfresco style at the weekend. Monday came and I awoke to the usual cold breeze. Soon after, the snow shower began. It lasted a few hours and as it ended we were beautifully covered from head to toe in the purest and softest of snow. It's gorgeous to look at, but we are now faced with, more than likely, another two weeks of persistent patches of ice that cause a hesitated and anxious tip toeing from A to B.
I hear that warmth will be gracing the shores towards the end of the March. Also, under the new ruling of global warming, we won't be seeing Spring. So it will be a quick transition from -5 up to 35 degrees within the space of a few weeks.
So this may be the last winter photo that I will post.

Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Chelsea

It is definately, without question or any level of consideration, my absolute responsibility to mention that Tottenham Hotspur, sorry my beloved Tottenham Hotspur, finally lifted a trophy on Sunday. It took place at Wembley stadium, which is probably one of the most infamous stadiums in the world, and it was against one of the most infamous teams in the world, Chelsea FC. I can't even begin to divulge how important it was for us to win this game. Trophies are beautiful but there are other things, like UEFA Cup football, certain players that we need to keep, and others we need to sign that made this game of such high importance and significance.
I don't know what else to say apart from if there are any fellow yids out there listening, just sit back and enjoy the rest of the season.

COYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yet again, new beginnings.

Before I begin I would like to draw your attention to this image. It is being blogged as a reminder to me that hot weather does exist. I'm getting fed up with this relentlessly freezing winter in Korea. This picture was taken in Perugia, Italy, it was around 39 degrees that day. Hopefully similar temperatures aren't too far away from life here in Korea.

March is the beginning of our new semester. A lot of new things are happening. OK, so two new Korean teachers are starting and they are yet to be introduced to the Kids Herald Team, so I have little to say on them at this moment in time. I do know that one is a Korean-Canadian and has studied-worked in film for 10 years, so there will be something to immediately chat about.

Other fresh additions to the group are new kids. This is obviously the most significant addition. I will now be teaching Blue and Red class. The red, as before, are the youngest kids. They are aged 4 and there are only three of them. My blue class are my current red class moving up to their second year and they will be joined by three other kids from other schools.

Afternoon classes see a slight change. I have changed my ESL classes. I am now teaching the two classes of Kindergarten kids that are graduating tomorrow. The kids that are graduating tomorrow have been at Kids Herald for 2 or 3 years and are now moving up in the world. They go to BIG elementary school, in the real schooling world, in the mornings and then come to us again in the afternoon for ESL classes.

Tomorrows graduation day sees all the parents of the top three classes come in and see their little ones get their certificates. Partying songs, speeches, clapping sessions and gifts will be presented. The whole show will be tied together by an MC. And yes you guessed it, it is me. I had a little time to prepare this time, so I have managed to muster up a couple of one liners to get the parents in the mood. Of course none of them will understand, but that’s the point, humouring oneself is just as important as humouring others – I think!!

Wish me luck.

Additional Information

I’ve had a request for additional stories and photography from China. Also, I have just returned from the gym and when one has been working out they seem to have a little spring in their step and I am going to see if I can transfer that spring into my writing. So I apologise in advance if I get carried away and over emotionalise things.

First up. The image you see above is of a notebook/diary that I bought. From this point on I’m going to refer to it as a notebook. It is formatted like a dairy (it has days, months etc inside the book) but I don’t do a diary, so I have transformed the format into a kind of scribble pad. So far it’s being predominately used to teach myself Korean. It has an abundance of Korean letters, combination letters and then a series of basic, essential phrases. It also has the odd funny one liners or just quick notes of funny things to remind myself at a later date.

One thing that is worth a mention is this. I take a 30 minute walk to work, every day. On my way a number of airplanes fly over my head as they make their way to one of the nearby international airports. Giovanna and I were sitting in Incheon airport awating our flight to Beijing. I turned to Giovanna and said “I find it very thought provoking living on a flight path. It makes me think of how far I am from home, etc. It can be quite emotional at times”. Giovanna then replied with “Yeah there are loads of helicopters around where I live. The sound is a lot louder than usual”

Thank you and apologies to Giovanna, but I did say that it would make the blog.

Next up is a formation of red flags. These were flying simultaneously in Tinanmen Square. Red is the colour of Chinese New Year. It’s worn to fend of the bad things and welcome the new, well something like that. For the sake of this short paragraph lets refer to red as being used to scare off the bad. Throughout the course of our four days in China we discovered that everything that had been said, made, created, discovered, grown, invented, produced, designed etc etc etc is all in the name of scaring away the bad. I’m not joking. Our guide continuously said that this, that and this and that is from the ancient times and was used to push away the bad. Even the steps on the ground between rooms have some kind of significance to good/bad. Basically if you stand on it, then you will get bad luck. But that is only if it’s made of some kind of stone – oh I don’t know, it’s all too confusing, needless to say I didn’t stand on any steps. Another thing they do is this; on New Years Day itself everyone wears a completely brand new set of underwear and guess what colour the underwear is – RED. I was going to ask the guide if she was wearing red underwear, but I had to stop myself, as I wasn’t sure if she would firstly get my joke, and then if she would even appreciate it, after-all we had only been in China for about an hour.

Ok moving on. This picture is of a silk unwinding machine. I’m fairly confident that it has a more technical name, but I feel this will suffice. OK, I found out a very interesting fact about Silk worms and their cocoons. There is a staggering one mile of silk on just one cocoon. That’s crazy!!! Isn’t it???

That will do for now…….

A few more pictures of China

I thought it would be fitting to add a few more photos from China. And, for good measure, I have included a short caption, story, anecdote, pun, joke and/or sentence so you have some kind of opportunity to empathise with the imagery.


Number One: We were taken to a tea house. We were sat down and then demonstrated the making and tasting of a select few teas. All very nice and tasteful. The Chinese host did, unfortunately but rather hilariously, made the experience a rather comical one. She pulled out, from beneath her tea table, two mugs. They had an image on the side of the mug. The black and white image was of a dragon and the great wall. She then told us to "pay very close attention to the mug", as she poured in the hot water the image changed to a mixture of very vibrant colours. But the raising of her voice, accompanied with the fluttering of her eye lids gave us the impression she was revealing god's biggest piece of magic. It was very embarrassing. Giovanna and I were clearly not in the slightest bit amazed by her pathetic attempt to to wow us, we both gave excruciatingly false ooooooo's and rrrrrrrrr's. It worked out it was her selling technique, as she proceeded to tell us we could purchase the exact mugs in her tea-house. Next!!!!

I like this picture. Giovanna and our guide walking.

As you can see the picture above is of my good friend Giovanna. Here you can see Giovanna eating a ringed donut. The catch is that we had stolen these donuts from our hotel buffet. Then we had taken them into the Coffee shop in Beijing Zoo and decided to eat them. It was funny as it was naughty to bring food into an establishment that sells food, we were getting in touch with the child in us.

In the park surronding 'The Temple of Heaven' there were many local people hanging out. Some were playing cards, badminton, chit-chatting, stretching, practicing Tai-Chi etc. On a concreted section of the park there were a herd of Chinese locals dancing. The picture above is of the moment when their tape player broke down. When the tape player was working, anyone with half a brain could tell that it wasn't going to be supplying people with music for much longer. The noise was dreary, weak, feeble, sappy and without question strained. Once it had stopped the party all stopped their dancing and a very eerie mood swept across the dance floor. The crowds were motionless and deadly silent. One poor man, who is obviously the resident DJ in the park, was working overtime trying to fix the player. A very anxious minute had passed and then suddenly music started again. It's difficult to explain how it re-started, but if ever you have tried to start an old car in freezing conditions, then you will be able to imagine a tape player doing/sounding the same. It coughed, it spluttered and it finally chugged its way into chorus. The dancing resumed peacefully.

Final picture today is of Giovanna buying some souvenirs. Not a very interesting picture. However, when we went to Silk Road market a couple of days earlier, Giovanna ran into a bit of haggling trouble. She decided to try on a North Face branded jacket. It was a very decent fake. The selling lady started of with a price of around 800 Chinese monies. Much haggling and o-ing and r-ing later. Giovanna found herself cornered in the little shop. She couldn't get away from the persistent selling lady. Things were getting fairly heated as Giovanna decided that this wasn't the person she wanted to purchase anything from. The price had gone down to around 140 Chinese monies, which is £10. Giovanna decided enough was enough and walked away, with the selling lady dragging behind like a screaming baby (attached to Giovanna's wrist). Two or three shakes later she fell off and walked back to her little shop - however she had the last say in the matter. There was a mere 5 metres between us all and the selling lady shouted "F--K YOU - F--K YOU" very loudly, the row of shops stopped and all stared. We moved on to the next row of shops.

China in all it's umm, glory!!??

So the Chinese New Year passed. Giovanna and I took ourselves on a four day excursion around Beijing. I won’t do a full report of the trip but will mention a few high and low lights from the trip.

We had booked ourselves on a package deal. I wouldn’t usually do this kind of thing, as more often than not they frustrate you on many accounts, with the most annoying being that you’re a mere two people in a group of 20 or so. This time we were very lucky. It was just us both. We had our own personal tour guide, driver and luxury mini-bus. Also included in the deal was ALL meals, 3 nights stay in four-star hotel, entry to all the attractions and any of the other nit-bits that you usually have to pay for.

Our first stop was the Tiananmen Square. A vast area mostly made up of concrete, which is the home to some important ‘chats’. Ha Ha, it does carry a lot more significance than that, but this is my blog and not a regurgitated copy of Wikipedia. So if you would like to know hard facts on these historical landmarks, and the others that I’m going to mention, then use other means.

Second on our excursion was the Forbidden City. Quite stunning! Although they were doing some repairs so about 40% of it was covered in scaffolding. I’m not the enthusiast that one would hope when it comes to buildings of historical significance, so please accept my apologies if you feel I don’t joyfully divulge the ‘glory’ details of my experience.

In the evening of day one we were treated to, what I am now calling the highlight of the trip, some Chinese Acrobatics. It was intense from the off. The physique on some of these kids, teenagers, and early 20 something’s was phenomenal. I can’t really describe what some of them were doing, but I do recall turning to Giovanna half way through the show and referring to the show as “some kind of freak show”. They were throwing themselves around the stage, up and down poles, from rope to rope, pole to pole with no safety nets, equipment or anything that sounded or looked like a health and safety briefing. Pure madness. But the pure madness made the show a thrilling spectacle that I would recommend to anyone, expect the faint hearted.

Friday was The Great Wall of China day. I’m too disappointed to even comment on this. All I will say is that we were taken, it seems by other people’s photography, to the least attractive part of the wall. Just means I have an excuse to go back to China one day.

Friday night we went to see ‘The Legend of Kung-Fu’ at a very nice theatre. I think we were so spoilt the night before, with the gasp fuelled acrobatics show, that this theatrical show came across as more of a chore than a Chinese spectacle. I had bought a DVD before the show, following a tip off from our guide that this would be the best thing we will ever watch. What a waste of money that was, although I do have friends back home that love the whole Kung-Fu fighting thing – so if you’re reading this, then you now know what your gift is going to be on my return. (RICK)

Saturday was a beautiful day and we went to two very gorgeous and stunning attractions. The Temple of Heaven was fantastically stunning and very interesting (when you know the thought process behind the structure and architecture of the temple). And secondly The Summer Palace. I think the later of these two places would be nothing short of stunning in the summer. An absolute MUST for any keen traveller.

Sunday was our last day and we took ourselves to Beijing Zoo. We had a free day away from our tour guide and thought some Pandas and other animals would be a nice, relaxing and thought provoking last day in China. It was far from that. Beijing Zoo is disgusting and I felt sick as I was walking around. Giovanna and I agreed that they must have built it about 100 years or so ago and then decided to never come back. It was dirty, rusty, smelly, filthy, run-down, depressing and to summarise a complete embarrassment to the nation. To make matters worse every single animal we looked at was either asleep or pretending to be asleep. Including the infamous Panda. Needless to say I won’t be recommending a trip to Beijing Zoo to anyone, not even to people I don’t like.

Mixed into all the above were very many meals, a massage or two, a few hilarious moments with freezing hands, factory upon factory, tea shops, red wine chats and to conclude our experience in China, the singe most pleasing thing was seeing Giovanna literally jump out of her skin on numerous occasions as Chinese people were setting off fireworks in the street, sporadically, all around her. She couldn’t control herself, she was hysterically screaming, laughing and I think secretly peeing herself. It was pure happiness on my behalf, and on hers, I think it was all too overwhelming for comprehension.

A few images decorate this blog on China.

Winter Camp

I won't go into too much detail about my days work on Saturday. When I signed my contract back in August 2007, I committed myself to working four Saturdays over the course of my contract. This time around it was Winter Camp. The camp consisted of sledging, a magic show, playing with some straw, kicking a ball type thing in the air and smacking some rice dough type stuff that turns into a Rice Cake! after an hours worth of consistent smacking..........
Photos below.....

Newtons Law

I was walking back from the supermarket this afternoon and I made way for an oncoming car, as I was in its way. As the car drove past me at a very slow pace I took the opportunity to have a quick peek inside the vehicle. Nothing out of the ordinary was there, until the back door passed me. They had two very small children, no older than 5/6, sitting comfortably in the back seats. On the window nearest me they had one of those sun shade things that stick to the window. On the sun shade was Newton's Law. I know that Koreans are very focused on bringing up their children in a very high tempo education system, but do you really think that it's a necessity to inflict them with Newton's Law at the age of 4 years old..... Personally, I think it's too soon.

Just a thought

I thought I would just mention that at the beginning of March we will have a whole new set of Kindergarten kids. Well a large majority of the existing bunch will graduate and leave Kids Herald School. Some will come into our afternoon classes and some will depart for good. My pink and red classes will move up a year and probably be taught by other teachers. This opens the door for me to have two entirely new classes. I'm a little nervous about this but also it will be exciting times. The new red class will be four year olds. They will have never been without their mummies, for more than a few hours, before they arrive into my capable (???) hands. Apparently they poo, wee, cry and scream for their mummies all day long for the first two months. But I have been reminded that I need to teach them A-Z and some numbers, colours and if possible some decent English manners as well........ It's going to be the biggest challenge I think I will ever be faced with - I SERIOUSLY can't believe what I am doing - I'm basically going to be babysitting a group of 4 year olds who don't speak a word, or letter for that matter, of my language.....If someone said to me a year ago that this is what I would be doing I would have politely told them to get real, f**k off and start talking some sense.
The picture is of nothing particular - it's a photoshop tampered photo of me digging into a massive portion of Kimchi.