Tears way before their bedtime

I have around 90 days left at my current school. I have spent my FULL TIME in Korea at Kids Herald School. So you're looking at two years employment with only a total of 5 or 6 weeks vacation in those two years. So, I have spent a healthy amount of time within the four brightly decorated walls of my private institution.

Over the last few weeks, having decided to definitely leave the school, I have started to think about a few special kids. I've mentioned before that you get attached to kids on more than just a teacher-student basis. Some kids you chat to their mothers, and you get a bit of inside information on their family and relationships begin to blossom. One mother bought me a pizza the other day because she, and her two daughters, both of whom I teach and have taught, felt sorry for me being in Korea, without my family. The most of the mothers in this system of education are insane and completely irrational, but there are a few that stick out as seriously thoughtful and warm people. One mother wanted to take me to a nice restaurant, with her whole family, to thank me for teaching her son. She decided upon giving me a restaurant voucher instead because she thought it would be too uncomfortable for me to sit with her normally large Korean family, she was right.

My thinking right now is that I can't wait to get out of the school and have some down-time. But then I think of a few faces that I will dearly miss. The three kids that I know I will miss are Sarah, Angela and Bookie. There are of course a whole lot more. These three have all been brilliant. Weird and wonderful kids. Cute and crazy.

Having spent, on average, about 5 hours a day with these kiddies, it's hard to tell how it's going to feel when I finally leave them. To see a kid grow from the age 4 to 6, you do see a heart warming transformation in a child, that I was a big part of. I can predict (and probably confirm) that there will be some tears on my last day.

Here's an early picture of Sarah with a bloody snake around her neck.

Here's Angela refusing to have a bloody snake around her neck.

Bookie is the one on the left. Sara is worthy of a mention too, she'll be missed.

Rain

Not particular reason as to why I haven't written a blog in a while. I guess in the same fashion as when I do write blogs, I wrote them for no reason other than I wanted to. Recently, I haven't wanted to write anything.
Today, I suddenly feel like writing a blog. As I'm writing I have no idea what I'm going to write about, how much I'm going to write, but I do know what images I'll be including. Yesterday was a typical day of rain in Seoul. One of those days when it just doesn't stop raining. On some of those days the rain will be torrential and the whole city is a wash. This Saturday was a drizzly day. One would be ok walking from their house to the station without an umbrella, if they didn't mind a light dampening on their knitwear. I decided to put my 70-300mm lens on my camera and take some shots. I had a umbrella in one hand and the camera in the other. Manual focus whilst holding the umbrella did prove challenging, but it actually made me slow down my shots and take a little more care when composing. I'm quite happy with the results. I went out knowing that I'd be mono-chroming the images once I got back to base. I played around with the levels on photoshop and have managed to create some fairly professional looking shots. Not bad for a hungover amateur photographer with a questionable umbrella above his head.





We had teachers day last week. I got some decent gifts.
In order of my likeness, worst first.
A handkerchief,
3 oranges,
3 sachets of instant coffee,
A diary with many pictures of coffee from around the world,
50,000 won restaurant voucher (about £27)
50,000 Coffee Bean coffee shop points card.

The coffee points card is an amazing present. I was so overjoyed at receiving this gift that I had to tell as many people as I possibly could (You know that feeling when something good happens). My new kids have started to call me coffee teacher. They have presented this to me as my official nickname. The chants of Toby Teacher have been replaced. Even the mothers make reference to my new nickname in their monthly student files. This was the basis for the coffee related presents. The reason they call me coffee teacher is because I drink a cup of coffee every morning. I guess that justifies.

Nothing extraordinarily exciting has happened to me in the past few weeks, months. JOKE, Rick did come to Korea, and at the same time he did enjoy his 10 day holiday here in Seoul. He loved the food, the nightlife and the general tick that Seoul has. It's pretty good place to visit it seems. Shame Korea doesn't sell itself to the world more so, but having recently read a lot in to their history it's no wonder they aren't forthcoming with open arms. Rick and I, hired a car (I got my Korean driving license a couple of months ago) so we drove to an island just off Incheon, the airport area. The weather in Seoul was high 20's, with it possibly touching 30 during the peak hours. On the island, I would estimate it was about 8 degrees. A rather large, and moist cloud had parked itself on, yes on, not above, the island. We were in a cloud for our 24 hours on the island. But we had underfloor heating in our beach-hut, which was 20 metres to the sea, which we couldn't see because of the cloud, so all was good. Happy memories.

Think I'm going to wrap this up. I did have a few more ideas for this blog, but a friend just called and they've sidetracked my thinking and I've completely forgotten what it was. Here is another rainy pic.....

See you soon.

DELAYED

This blog has been delayed due to extreme weather conditions in my life. Not really extreme, just need to relax for a bit. More focus has been on going to the gym, un-winding and more recently, enjoying other pastures, away from blog writing. The forecast is good so I expect the updates to be more frequent and of significance soon.

I can say that I will return to the UK at the end of August for a break. The duration of this break is still in the balance but it will be longer than three weeks and probably shorter than three months. We'll see.

Sports

One year, seven months, lots of experiences. Countless memories, some joyful, some life curving, but all significant in the wrapping of my time here in South Korea. Within this time frame I have been to two sporting events. The thought of it makes me feel sick. How can I document to myself and other people that, "I like all sports"? I have been to just two major sporting events.
In fact, when I was back home for 3 weeks I went to two football games and one day of cricket. My first sporting event in Seoul was a football game during my first week and my latest addition to sporting experiences in another country was a baseball game yesterday. It was great fun. I shared the experience with a fellow Brit, like me had never been to a baseball game, and then a Canadian, who knew a fair amount about baseball and then Jason, an American who would proudly put baseball at the top of his pecking order of sports.
Throughout the game we were all calling upon our sporting experiences, with the focus being on the atmosphere and action of the fans. It seems that in all sports, that we discussed anyway, that football (soccer for the North Americans out there) is the only sport that has negative banter between its supporters. Jason was quite surprised to hear that on occasions (every game), the fans will hurl abuse at referees, opposition players and also their own players. He found it quite amusing that a Spurs fan would enjoy chanting "Viera, whoooohooa, Viera, whooohooa, he wants to leave the scum, cause Campbell wants his bum", as an example of many that I gave. Another being, "The referees a wan*er".
After my experience yesterday, at the very clam and respectful baseball game, I felt a desire for my blood to be pumping at a Spurs game. I do miss the atmosphere at a Permiership football game, and all the abuse and negative verbal slants that one will here during the 90 minutes should not be taken too seriously. This kind of electric language is what gives our great game the edge over most when it comes to being a spectator sport. I think passion is the word.
Passion was definately evident at the baseball yesterday. During picthes there was a atmospheric bouyancy that any sporting event would be proud to present. The difference between a British football game and a Korean baseball game can be summarised by one of their songs. The theme tune to 'Inspector Gadget', was blasted out of the stands, and to the crowds delight they would tweet "dudt doooo", at the end of the sample..... awe inspiring.
Here are a couple more pics from the baseball......

The Marmite Debate

My comparison, to that of the yeast spreadable Marmite, is pretty straight forward. Korea is a country that, once you have been here long enough to understand it, long enough to pass some kind of judgment, most come up with either "I love it", or"I hate it".

There are a large number that fall in both categories. In fact I would like to challenge any "I hate Korea" person, to put their hand of their heart and say they completely dislike every aspect of the country. For me, this is impossible. I love this country dearly, but at the same time it can be hateable. To summarise, before I digress, I would say this country has a significant ability to keep people interested, keep them guessing, wondering, a huge amount of mysteriousness is behind peoples fascination with these lands. Nobody can truly understand exactly what the make-up of Korea is. I think this is why people stay here longer than they anticipated. I recall thinking to myself "I'm not done here, I don't know why, but I got another year in me". I wasn't driven by another years contract earning decent money or by a lady, although both of those two things were VERY VERY VERY good reasons to stay. I think the feeling was deeper. I'm still fascinated by everything this country offers. I think I'm addicted to the people, the food and the mysteriousness. I've read a few articles in The Korean Times recently, written by a Korean. He's a social critique. He's discussed some intriguing opinions of Korean people and their society. The most significant to mind is that he sees Koreans as a tribe. A tribe with a huge heart, and as within any tribe, the heart is focused on looking after their own. It's very true. This carries over into the justice system in this country. Of course there are elements of justice, but the justice is awarded by the heart rather than a rule or procedure. Our justice system is down to one word "Justice". In a car accident, for example, if a driver is drunk, then without question that person is to blame, that is the procedure of justice in regards to a drunken car accident. In Korea, recently, there was a incident where a motorcyclist, from the US, hit a drunk Korean man. The drunk man was J-walking on an area of road that, by law, should be lit up. It wasn't lit up. So we have a road that the cities council have neglected, a drunken man who is J-walking and a motorcyclist. The three of them find themselves in a court. In a court of justice, the monies owed would fall into the hands of the drunken man, for J-walking, and the councils for neglecting the law and not illuminating the road. However, in a Korean court of tribalism, the monies owed fell upon the motorcyclist. Is that justice?? No, not to the American. But is it justice to a fellow tribesmen? Yeah, sure it is.

I don't have a strong opinion on this issue of justice, but it highlights a fascination that Korea offers. Koreans have a huge heart. The heart comes first. Sadly, the heart is for their own.

I'm currently planning a trip around India. I've heard from many people and publications that India has the biggest heart of all nations. The difference being, when considering the Korean heart, is that the Indian heart is open for all, where as the Korean is very much closed and only open at rare times, and of course, for their own.

What are you doing?

Stop sitting there moaning about your country being in a financial boo hoo, get up and sample something completely refreshing and insanely rewarding. Come and teach in Korea. Why aren't you here already? Is a question, I would ask you. A question you might ask yourself is "Why not?". There's no small print when it comes to Korea. Everything everyone tells you is true. Artificial temptations are; the good pay that you'll receive, the free housing you will receive and the hero status the kids and mothers will give you, most of the time. Other huge selling points to this country are; its culture and food, its big city, its smaller cities, its energy and tradition. If you're in limbo about what to do next, then come, get on that plane (which your company will pay for by the way), don't waste anymore time.

See you soon....... (maybe)

Writing Practice

What you see is a diary extract. I don't usually write a diary in my own language, but thought it would be a good method of practicing newly acquired Korean vocab and grammar (in fact it wasn't my idea, but Chris Uttons, but I took it on).

I wrote this today and am using it on here to show you what kind of level I'm at and what I'm studying. I will of course translate for you soon. I wrote this in about 15 minutes, so I'm a little bit chuffed with myself, as were my Korean teachers. They seem to think that I'm smart, I have never been called smart by any teacher in my existence, and I'm not taking this too seriously as, I'm pretty sure, they're just being nice, after all, it's in their nature to be nice, in situations like this.

Translation.

Saturday, Last week, my girlfriend and I went shopping. and then we had dinner in Hongdae. We ate Samgyobsal. Yesterday morning, afternoon and evening I took a rest because I was tired. Next month my friend will come to Korea, but, I want him to come now, because I miss him so much. Tomorrow evening, I'm not busy, therefore, I want to go shopping, but, I don't have lots of money, so, I will not be going shopping. I will probably go shopping with my girlfriend next month. I think shopping is fun, but it's expensive. Next Year, I will probably go traveling, because I want to have a rest. I think that Brazil is interesting, therefore, I might go there. But, There are lots of countries that I want to see, so it's difficult to choose.

Other things that have brightened up my life are these.
Penguins make Ice Cream. I was talking about food groups with my 8 year olds. Dairy foods was our subject and the best way I could describe them was that they came from animals, which is true, isn't it?.
A little while later I said "What food group does Ice Cream go in?", I said Dairy because it's made from milk, essentially. One kid, remembering that 'Dairy products come from animals', and looking confused that I had placed it in the dairy group, questioned me "Does ice cream come from penguins, then?". My goodness it made me smile from ear to ear. What a beautiful idea!!!!!
Big Bang is a Scientist. In Korea, K-POP, is huge. Korean Pop is the only music that youngsters listen to. There are alternative genres, but if you're looking at percentages then we're talking about 90% of the country listen to and love K-POP. One of the leading artists is 'Big Bang', which I think is made up of 4/5 very female looking males, not transsexual, but just very young and cared for males. Their songs are catchy and quite good actually. Anyway, In class today, with my 7 year olds, we were talking about the Earth, Volcanoes, Lava, etc etc. One kid said, "A long time ago there was a big bang". Thomas then said, "Why is the group called 'Big Bang', do they like science?", Then his friend replied, "maybe they're scientists".

Moments like the penguin and the big bang are two concrete reasons why my job is amazing. Hard at times, but where else can you get dialogue like that?! I love it.........


Nice contrast. A slice of a Buddhist temple (old) with offices in background (new).

Something, that I think I've mentioned before, that is bothering me, is how much I'm stared at. If this happened at home you would be very proud and even start to gain some self confidence and believe that people like the way you look.
Here, it's obviously because I'm a significant minority. However, some of the looks I get are as if they have never seen a foreign sole before. This, although very unlikely, might be the case. Either way, some of the looks are of genuine disgust. Mostly coming from the elder generation and also from the female sex.
Men usually stare at you, and then look away because more often than not I will be bigger than them, and men usually look another man as an act of comparing stature, therefore when a Korean man looks at one of us, they then feel inferior, so they quickly look away. A completely fabricated and not completely honest opinion, but it reads well.
Mothers in Korea are like no others on planet Earth. They care for the sons and daughters to a level of pure insanity. It's a beautiful thing though, I'm not casting a negative judgment on them in the slightest. However, it leads me to why elder women, probably mothers, look at us foreign folk with disgust.
Firstly, considering their daughters, they think that I'm going to date them, woo them, marry them and whisk them off to my country to settle down. Secondly, considering their sons, if I date a Korean women they think that is reducing the number of beautiful women (options) for their sons. Interesting........