See the World

Last week was Korean Thanksgiving, so I took the opportunity of a 5 day weekend to go to Hong Kong, and have a look around. Having been to Hong Kong before, I also decided I would cross the border into neighbouring Shenzhen and see some of the world. I didn't know just how much of the world I could see . . .

Shenzhen is a big tourist draw for people from both the rest of mainland China and Hong Kong, and consequently there are a few attractions there. One of them is called 'The Window of the World.' Its a sort of model village, but of the whole world. Every major building or tourist attraction in the world is replicated, and while some are quite small, some are pretty big. The Eiffel Tower is 2/3 the size of the original in Paris. So having seen the Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat, the Great Pyramids, Sydney Opera House, Mount Rushmore, and much more, I now feel I can put my passport away. I've seen the world. (I didn't feed the world, it wasn't Christmas). I particularly like this photo, as you can see not just the Statue of Liberty, but also the ancient Nazca lines of Peru (to the right), Easter Island (background), and Christ the Redeemer (top left). 

I also got to visit some ancient Chinese sites, where I learned that while Chinese people put great store in tradition, they also really really like the internet, and their modems.

Give your modem a hug

While I was in Hong Kong, there was a news report about a Super Typhoon! Named Usagi, this storm was potentially the most powerful storm to hit the planet in nearly 30 years! With winds of 180 mph it was sweeping past Taiwan and headed straight for Hong Kong! I therefore decided to go to a theme park. Ocean Park is excellent, and was a lot of fun, and thankfully, I left before Super Typhoon Usagi could do some damage

Back at school, there have been a few changes to the schedule just for this week, meaning I've been teaching a class of teeny tiny toddlers. They are 3 years old, and can't speak much Korean, let alone much English. Obviously I am a giant to them, so I've been singing 'Old McDonald' to them while they sit, necks craned back to look up at the giant man, and drool. At the end of the week, some of them would hug my leg and say; 

"I love you Miss Victoria." Thats their regular teacher. Its been fun! But I'm looking forward to getting back to my older kids who can actually communicate next week!

No sporting action this weekend, though I am hopefully going to go to the Korean Formula 1 Grand Prix next weekend, and then its almost countdown to our next Open Class at school, and after that . . . . Christmas!



Finally, the Adventures of Tyrion the Turtle

This week, Tyrion learnt about the forthcoming release of a new, live action, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, scheduled for release next year! He was however, bemused by the storyline that the turtles are now aliens for some reason. He has also started learning kung fu, in the hopes of gaining a part in the new movie. Good luck, and god speed . . . .

Open Day and Shiny Goodbye



Its been a busy couple of weeks with a teacher leaving, a new teacher starting, an open day, the return to baseball action, the start of my Korean football and Korean cricket careers, the inevitable knee injury, and a visit to the toilet museum. Let me see if I can bring you all up to speed . . .

First up, the longest serving foreign teacher at our school left to go to Canadia, which means at a little over 6 months, I'm now the longest serving foreigner! As all the teachers live in the same building, we also had a little shuffle with our apartments, and before leaving, he made his apartment nice and shiny;

So on to Open Day. A couple of times a year, all the parents come in to observe the lessons for the day. Its a fee paying private school, so the parents want to see what they're paying for, and its also an opportunity for the school to really show off and hopefully drum up some extra business. This means the bosses are stressing out for weeks beforehand, as we practice and demo our classes again and again. But the day itself went really well. Its definitely a strange experience having 20 parents sat in the classroom aswell as your 20 kids, but it just gives you some extra motivation to really show off and play to the crowd. Its great fun!

There was a tiny little issue in my science class, as the Korean teachers moved some of the displays around prior to Open Day, and they didn't put things back exactly as they had been. See if you can spot the error (there may be more than one);

In sports news, I made my debut for Inter Suwon FC, but it didn't last long. What was later diagnosed as a sprained PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) meant I had to come off at halftime. So no more football for 4-6 weeks. That doesn't stop me playing baseball or cricket though, as I also made my debut for the Seoul Exiles cricket team. However, we were thrashed by the Pakistan Eagles. I put on 15 off 5 overs for the opening wicket, but after I feathered one behind, we collapsed to 43 all out off only 10 overs. Unsurprisingly, we struggled to exert much scoreboard pressure in defending that total, and lost pretty quickly. Still it was nice to get out there, and we might be playing a friendly against the Korean National side soon.

I also visited Suwon's world famous Restroom Cultural Park and Toilet Museum. I was flush with excitement, and rightly so, it was amazing! Its not often you get to read sentences like

"The Toilet Culture Movement started in the late 1990s in Suwon . . . "

Aswell as learning all about the great work that the WTA (thats the World Toilet Association) does around the globe, and the 'Toilet Revolution' that was started right here in Korea.

It was brilliant! Pick your favourite from the pictograms below (I like Indonesia and Canadia)

Finally, the Adventures of Tyrion the Turtle

Well its Korean Thanksgiving next week, so there's many gift packs and special things for sale in all the shops and supermarkets. As Tyrion is a Korean turtle, I decided to buy him a little present to give thanks

Koreans love spam. FACT

(Turtles love spam too. FACT)