Christmas in Korea

Well Christmas has come and gone, my first Christmas in Korea, my first Christmas away from my family, and it was a strange but enjoyable experience. Christmas is a massive non-event in Korea. In a very Christian country, with churches on almost every street, Christmas ranks below Thanksgiving, Lunar New Year, and even Children's Day as a holiday. All the shops were open as normal, most people went to work as normal, you would never have known it was Christmas Day. Our school was open as normal on Christmas Eve, and it was back to school as normal on Boxing Day. The foreigners all got together at a local pub to have a proper roast turkey dinner which was nice, though I did miss pulling Christmas crackers, wearing the paper hats, and reading the obligatory dreadful jokes.
On Christmas Eve, I had to dress up as Santa at school, and the kids had loads of pictures taken with a cardboard sleigh, some cardboard reindeer, a cardboard Christmas tree, and me in my big red suit standing behind them. One of the Korean teachers then grabbed me for a quick selfie;

I also had my students pose for a picture for me to put on a card and send to some friends, so you can see my kids in their mixture of school uniforms. The orange jumpsuit that looks like they're training to be henchmen in some James Bond movie is their P.E. outfit. Also note, the abundance of neckerchiefs, very popular in Korea;

As winter has started to bite, we've had temperatures hit -7C in the day, and I'm told that in the depths of winter, daytime highs of -15C are not uncommon. Yikes! We've also done some winter themed science work in school, analyzing the crystalline configuration of snowflakes and such;

                                                            Very scientific


In the sporting world, the Ashes has been nothing short of a disaster, so the less said about that the better. As most sports take a winter break in Korea, I have now started playing in a social 6-a-side football league for fear of suffering from sporting withdrawal symptoms otherwise. And am also very much looking forward to the Hong Kong 7s rugby tournament in March.
My last trip to Hong Kong to watch Manny Pacquiao fight was certainly an adventure. As my friend, who is a Hong Kong resident, did not take his passport to Macau, he was therefore refused entry, and escorted back to the ferry to Hong Kong. With time running out to go home, get his passport, get back to the ferry terminal, and get back to Macau (a one hour journey by ferry from Hong Kong to Macau) before the fight started, he sent me a message saying he wasn't sure if he could make it, although the helicopter only takes 15 minutes, and costs $4000. To which I jokingly replied in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger impression - "Get to da choppaaaaaaaa!" Which he did! Dedication to sport! The fight was excellent, with Manny winning a 12 round unanimous points decision.
I got to hear Michael Buffer and his legendary "Let's get ready to rumbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal"
And sitting ringside were such luminaries as David Beckham, Paris Hilton, and one of the Baldwin brothers (it doesn't matter which one, nobody knows the difference).

Next up on my adventures will be a trip to Cambodia for new years, and a visit to Angkor Wat. I am sure I will write a blog all about it next month.


And finally, the Adventures of Tyrion the Turtle
 
Its been another exciting month for the little fella. He had another trip to school, where I let the kids take it in turns to hold him. Tyrion decided to wee on one of the boys, so I quickly picked him up, which was his chance to poo on the floor! This was greeted by much screaming from the kids, and much laughter from me! I will soon be testing his endurance and survival skills, as I leave for a week's vacation, leaving him free reign in my apartment. So here's hoping he doesn't host any wild parties in my absence . . .

Science school

This month has been another busy one, with two open classes at school, much action in both cricket and baseball, and the onset of my first Korean winter.

There's been lots going on at school, with preparations beginning for the next school year starting at the end of February, and a couple of open classes. The school is a private kindergarten for kids aged 4 years old to 8 years old from 09:00 - 15:00, then a private English academy (or Hagwon) from 15:00 - 18:00 for kids aged 8 to 11. However, only kids that went to the kindergarten can go to the Hagwon, so there is obviously a big push to get the kids who are leaving the kindergarten and moving up to elementary school to come to the Hagwon next year. For that reason, we had an open day for the Hagwon, when all the parents come in to watch me teach a lesson, followed a few weeks later by another open day, this time in the kindergarten. Both went well, and it looks like the school will be expanding next year which is good news. The owner was very pleased, and took all the English teachers out for a very nice meal, where I saw some very rare cheesecake;

                                         Rare Cheesecake - Almost extinct in the wild


We were also given some tickets to a concert by a famous Korean opera singer, called Kim Dong Kyu. None of the other teachers went, but it was really good! He did some Elvis songs, and some Frank Sinatra songs, aswell as some classic opera 'hits.' The only downside was before the concert, we had to sit through a 45 minute talk from a bank about saving money, interest rates, tax, and various different savings accounts. All in Korean. With the usual fascinating powerpoint presentation demonstrating how interest rates have changed over the last 10 years. That was less fun, but the concert was great.

Elsewhere, my science classes continue to stray further and further away from actual science. We have four 'immersion' classes that have extra activity classes in addition to their regular English lessons, the activities being science, art, music, and reading. At the start of the year, my science classes were reasonably sciencey, but they've got more and more arty, as we have drawn pictures of a bee, painted a bag, and recently, just drew a vase and glued some flowers on to it. I really feel sorry for these kids. When they go to high school, they're going to have a very confused notion of what science actually entails.

                                                      They don't do this at CERN

In sporting news, the cricket season is over in Korea. It ended with me playing in the Allstar game (yeah, I'm an All Star!), and meeting the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Korea, aswell as the President of the Korean Cricket Association. Very much looking forward to the Ashes, the return of the domestic cricket season in April, and hopefully going to see some international cricket at next year's Asian Games, right here in Korea!
In baseball, my team had their most successful season ever, winning through the playoffs to make it to the Championship game yesterday, against the regular season winners. As expected, it was a tight game, until a couple of individual errors allowed them to go from 2-2 to 5-2 up in their final innings, and we were only able to pull one back, to lose 5-3. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed my first season of baseball, and after I was shockingly omitted from the All Star game next weekend, it will be a few months before I swing a bat again.


And finally, the Adventures of Tyrion the Turtle

Well the little man had a real adventure last week, as I took him into school so the kids could play with him. They are currently learning a song about a little turtle, so it was a good opportunity for them to see one in real life, and despite a few screams from scared girls, and a few less scared boys trying to pull his head off, he's still alive! He's also very much looking forward to Christmas, and celebrating the birthday of Je2sus



Everland and the Korean GP

Its been a busy couple of weeks, with two bank holidays, and a couple of action packed weekends, so lets get started!

First up, was 'National Foundation Day', which no Korean person I asked was able to explain. Was it the day Korea was first founded? When was that? How is it different from 'Independence Day' a couple of months ago? Either way, it was a day off school, so me and one of the other teachers went to Everland, a theme park, and one of the biggest tourist attractions in Korea. I wanted to go for one reason, and one reason only. To see a liger. For those that don't know, a liger is the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger (as opposed to a tion), and as they don't exist in the wild, there's only a very few in captivity in the world, and Everland is one of the places that has one. Sadly, the place was packed, so I didn't get to see the liger, but I will definitely be going back. I did see one of my students, who was crazy excited to see me, despite the fact that she saw me the previous day at school, and would see me again the next day at school. She was so happy to see me, and told everyone at school that she had seen her teacher at Everland. It was hilarious!

That weekend I went down to Mokpo for the weekend to see the Korean Formula 1 Grand Prix. The race is held right down in the southwest of the country, about 5-6 hours away from Seoul. The idea was to build the track, then build a new town, loads of facilities, and make it into a resort to really regenerate the region. However, once Korea had built the track, they ran out of money, so now they have a Grand Prix, miles away from anywhere, which no-one wants to go to. The place was empty, whole grandstands were closed because there was no-one there, and there was maybe one seat in 50 occupied. Despite being ridiculously cheap. It will definitely be the last time they hold a race in Korea. But I saw a couple of crashes and a car burst into flames so I was happy. Here's a shot of Kimi Raikkonen zooming past

We then had another day off this week for 'Hangul Proclamation Day' which commemorates the creation of the Korean writing system, which was only about 150 years ago, as the Korean writing system is incredibly simple and easy to learn. For this day off, I visited a traditional Korean folk village. I saw some traditional Korean tight rope walking, some traditional Korean pottery, some traditional Korean houses, a traditional Korean wedding, some traditional Korean dancing, and had some traditional Korean food. It was all very traditional and very Korean. I also saw some traditional Korean horse skills;

It was actually very good, my only criticism would be that there were too many traditional Korean houses. Once you've seen a couple, (and there are over a hundred), you are quite literally just going round the houses.

In school we're getting ready for another open class (when all the parents come in to watch your lesson), this time for our after school kids, who are more advanced. The school is a kindergarten from 09:00 - 15:00, then an after school club (or Hagwon) from 15:00 - 18:00. I say more advanced, some of the after school kids aren't great. The system we use works on levels, with each class completing a level every two months, and moving up to the next level. So the kids go through 6 levels a year, so a kid on level 18 has been learning English for 3 years. Some of the kindergarten kids I teach at level 12 are super smart, and some of my after school kids at level 20 are . . . . . well . . . . not. Here is an example of a kid's journal;

I should say, that one of his classmates wrote in perfect English about how he'd read a book about Hercules, and that he liked Hercules because he was very strong, and he liked Greek Mythology. He likes Apollo who is a very good hunter, he likes Poseidon because he makes big storms, and he likes Hermes because he is very fast. The kid that wrote the journal above, is a little behind the rest of the group. Or to put it another way, he sometimes takes off his socks in class and chews on them. True story.

In sporting news I was back on the baseball field on Saturday, smashing balls all over the park as my team got back to winning ways. Its nearly the end of the season, with only a few more games before the playoffs. But more importantly, I am playing international cricket tomorrow! I'm playing for a World XI against the Korean National Cricket Team! Korea is hosting the Asian Games in 2014 (like an Asian Olympics), so the Korean Cricket Team is desperate for as much practise as they can get before they get thumped by the likes of India and Pakistan and other Asian nations that actually know how to play cricket. But I'll do my best to give their players a masterclass in batting tomorrow.


And finally, the Adventures of Tyrion the Turtle.

This week, Tyrion and some friends went jewelery shopping! Check it out;

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)

  

Independence Day

August 15th is Korean Independence Day, so we get a day off school, there are flags everywhere, and everyone is watching that movie with Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum;

So it seems like a nice time to tackle the issue of the excessive heat in Korea during the summer. They have a rainy season that lasts for around 6 weeks from the beginning of July. Its over 30 degrees every day, and it rains pretty much every day. With rainy season now over, we're back to heat of easily over 30 degrees every day, but at least its not raining all the time. With humidity of over 90% most of the time though, you just get used to living your life drenched in sweat. All the time. And I'm not talking about patches around the armpit. I mean that you start to sweat the second you walk out of the door of your air-conditioned apartment, and about 15 minutes later, you don't have sweat patches, because your shirt has reached a uniform level of dampness. At school, I am quite literally dripping sweat, from my head, my arms, my legs, everywhere. I occasionally have kids saying "Teacher, water why?" and pointing at the water dripping off me. Its not fun, but you do get used to it.
One of the ways I deal with it, is by eating bing-su, a Korean snack involving fruit and lots of shaved ice. You can get small cups of it, but you can also get big bowls of the stuff, and its delicious;

                                              It really is delicious! And best of all, its cold!

Another way to cool down during the summer, is by getting wet. Obviously there's plenty of coastline, and a lot of outdoor swimming pools, but there is also the chance to go white water rafting. Which is something that quite a lot of people, Korean and foreign, do at the weekend. Korea is quite mountainous, so the river water is usually pretty cold. And its a lot of fun;

Now that the rainy season is over, its also time for the baseball season to resume, so I'll be back out there on Saturday. I also hope to resume my football career the next day, after 18 months out with a serious knee injury, we'll see if my creaking joints can hold up.

And on the subject of Korean Independence, I had one of my students come up to me last week, while we were writing stories, and ask me
"Teacher, are we North Korea, or South Korea?"
"We're South Korea." I replied.
"Hmmmm . . . . good. Good." He said, and went back to his seat. I have images of this poor kid watching the news with his parents and thinking "I hope that's not us, they sound like dicks!"

And finally,
The Adventures of Tyrion the Turtle

Well sadly, the Game of Thrones TV series from which Tyrion derives his name, is finished. So my little turtle has nothing to watch on TV. He has made his feelings very clear;



Summer Holiday

Well the tragic part about summer holidays in Korea, is their length. The kids here work really really hard, and unless you're at a public school, then the kids get one week off in the summer, and one week off in the winter. And that's it. Two weeks off all year. Compared to the 14 weeks off that kids in the west get.

So I made the most of my summer vacation, and jetted off to Okinawa. Part of Japan, but a 3 hour flight from Tokyo, stranded in the middle of the pacific, and with its own language, its really another world. And a beautiful world it is too. This is the view from my hotel room on Akajima. 

I had a wonderful time, there's a lot of history from World War II, where the Battle of Okinawa was the largest and bloodiest land battle of the Pacific theatre, claiming over 200,000 lives. There's also a lot of history from the time of the Ryukyu Kingdom, that flourished from the 14th-18th century until mainland Japan took control. So I visited many monuments, and old castles and tombs.

There's also an abundance of wildlife, including wild deer, that I saw just walking around on the beach, aswell as giant Okinawan tree spiders, of which I also saw a fair few. The waters are also perfect for diving, and the the number and variety of aquatic life I saw when I went snorkelling and scuba diving was simply breathtaking. Aswell as a multitude of fish, sea snakes, eels, and coral, I got incredibly close to a giant sea turtle, which was a wonderful experience.

They also make their own special alcohol on Okinawa, using the venom from a poisonous snake species native to the islands. You can buy jars of the stuff, complete with coiled snake at the bottom;

But after the vacation it was straight back to work, and back to playing games and singing songs with the kids! Its also nearly the end of the rainy season in Korea, which means we'll soon be done with temperatures over 30 degrees coupled with rain every day, which is not a nice combo. And it also means the baseball season is back this weekend, so while England can bask in the glory of retaining the Ashes in a real bat/ball sport, I'll be back out on the diamond this Saturday, playing crossbat shots at full tosses.

Finally, the Adventures of Tyrion the Turtle

This week, I thought I'd share with you a picture of one of little Tyrion's big cousins, a giant sea turtle from the tank in the Sea Turtle Museum on Kumejima;