People are looking at me.

I am writing this post from a pagoda in Incheon intl. Airport. For once I didn't have to climb a mountain to reach it... although I did opt for the stairs over the escalator as it is healthy just like the large tiramisu mocha I'm about to down.

I have around an hour to make my transfer from Beijing to Hong Kong so I expect many people will be approached by a frantic foreigner (potential blog name if any of you are in the market for one... 50wonzillaz please) asking them for help.

I need to wander around and look suspicious now. Oh the joys of turning up to the airport three hours earlier than required.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Sniffly

Update: evacuated from pagoda.

A feast for your imagination, Christmas folk.

'Tis the season of eating and drinking (more so than other seasons), and being on the other side of the world (to some of you) it's difficult to find some holiday season comforts, either in their entirety or at a reasonable price. An attempt at trying to find the baileys proved useless and there's not a mince pie in sight.

So, in an effort to make those of you on more roast potatoey (it's a word) shores jealous, I will prepare an imaginary feast for you, made up of only my favourites of the wonderful Korean cuisine. There isn't so much a starter, main course and pudding setup in Korea but I'll adapt my menu to this format.

So for starters on this fine day, I will have Sundae. No it's not an ice cream but a Korean variant of one of my favourite breakfast items, black pudding. Who am I kidding? ALL of the breakfast items are my favourite breakfast items! This variant however is much more, intestiney, mmmm..... but DELICIOUS.

I am intensely (intestinely) fond of this dish. HAR HAR HAR

Onto the main course(s) of a) bibimbap, a dish native to the region in which I live, Jeollabuk-do, consisting of rice, vegetables egg and spicy gochujang (red pepper paste), b) galbitang, or short beef rib stew, with glass noodles, egg and spring onions as well as the more ordinary white onion (throw some rice in there too) and c) bossam, boiled pork thrown onto a leaf with some ssamjang (spicy soybean paste) and other assorted toppings. Here's some photos that will hopefully make your mouth water.

Bibimbap: Mix it all up and then gobble it all up.

Bossam: Wrap it up and throw it down your throat.

Galbitang: Take your time with this one - it comes hot.

'And what about dessert!?' I hear you cry. 

This is a red bean fish. A fish shaped pancake filled with mashed redbean.

And this one is a red bean fish ice cream. Wafer cone filled with ice cream and red bean jam.

Yummy.

On Friday I'm flying to Hong Kong for Christmas, and I expect the food there to be delicious.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Red Bean Fisherman

P.S. This issue's K-pop performed by Wonder Girls and Akon.

The teachery activities of a teacher

Please, take a seat.

I should start off by saying: I've extended! If granted, I will be staying in Korea until (at least) next August. I'd kind of made my mind up about this before I even got on the plane to come to Korea on my initial six month contract, so it was an easy decision to make.

A couple of weeks ago I went to my first thanksgiving dinner, and we had quite the feast, including but not limited to: three chickens (not each) with all the trimmings, fried crispy seaweed, deviled eggs, pumpkin pie, fruit crumble, ice cream and other tasties. It was very nice and a good excuse to have a Christmas dinner a month before Christmas.

I've been doing lots of teachery activities recently, to be detailed below:

• As part of the school curriculum, students and staff alike are required to do some kind of voluntary service. This time it was visiting an old people's home and putting a show on for them. The kids did a few performances including an orchestra set, a drum (samulnori) show and a couple of song and dance routines. In the last post I wrote about being asked to sing a song with the teachers, but in reality I just had to dance along. It was a hit and staff, students and the elderly alike cried 'ENCORE!' to us, and of course me and the lads obliged. Below is an excerpt of our dance:

• Me and the teachers played some 'Tee-ball' last Wednesday, which is basically rounders.

• Team Jeokseong also visited Dongae Elementary for the tri-school volleyball final. Of course I was hideously overdressed in smart shoes and a shirt and still ended up being picked to play. Fortunately for me and my gripless shoes, a new player appeared and my services (or disservices as my last volleyball game made it known) were no longer required. So I stood on the edge talking, cheering and eating chicken and fruit. It was like PE at school except this time I didn't have to forge a letter from my mom saying I'd hurt my foot and couldn't take part. (Hi mom, I'm sorry you had to find out this way, but yes, I did that.)

• I'm also learning to play the changu, a Korean drum. I hope there's a K-pop niche for that.

Onto other K-pop related news. A couple of days ago my students asked me what music I liked and when I replied with 'BIGBANG' one of my students got very annoyed with me. She told me that I needed to say I hated them because they were 'hers'. I said no. She cried. I'm going to see them next month hopefully. I'll be sure to take lots of photos for her.

The snow hit Korea on Wednesday in full force, and yesterday I climbed the Sunchang mountain. Below are some pictures from this little excursion that I took with my neighbour Ekta.

Good morning, snowy mountain.

A little something refreshing to help on the climb.

 Snow Temple.

I also went to Skyrim.

Don't eat yellow snow or shake strange trees hands.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Cold person.

P.S. This installments dose of K-pop isn't K-pop. It's a 'traditional style' song taken from a film I watched, 'A frozen flower'. It was very good but don't watch it with your parents or your children if you have them. You have been warned. The clip below is harmless, don't worry. Watch it with the whole family if you so desire.

Lucky poo.

It's been a bit of a while hasn't it?

Anyway, onto better things.

A few weeks me and two companions (Anna + Becky) made our way to the Sunchang Gochujang (Red Pepper Paste) festival. It was quite small and I didn't see much gochujang but what happened there was very amusing and made for a day to remember. Here's a quick rundown:

• Anna got a bit (a BIG bit) of pancake put in her mouth by a lady.
• Anna shook a man's hand in confusion when we think he wanted her to take his photo. We realised this a few hours later. He looked confused.
• I danced with some 'ahjummas': 

Two days later, the Jeonbuk TaLK scholars, accompanied by staff from the education office and I, headed for Jeju Island for the 9th Generation Cultural Trip. While there, we went to some theme parks. While you might be thinking 'Alton Towers' or 'Disney Land', it is something entirely different. Instead of being a theme park, they are in fact parks with themes, yet while still fun don't leave you screaming for your life. That's something I'm saving for the bungee jumping tomorrow.

We went to a miniature building theme park:

A sex-statue theme park:

Also we saw some teeny-tiny horses:

Upon my return, it was time for the school festival. It was fun and I got to see just how talented my kids are, especially when playing any of a great number of instruments. Afterwards, I wandered around looking lost for a bit until it was lunchtime - BUFFET! After this, I headed home for a while (I trod in dog poo on the walk home which is supposedly lucky. I certainly felt lucky.) and went out to meet the school staff for hweshik (staff dinner) which involved food (raw fish yum) and then noraebang (karaoke). I sang two songs, and I think they actually went down pretty well. Some of the teachers have asked me to perform a song with them at a care for the elderly concert next week. I'm not sure what song it is and I'm almost certain it's going to be in Korean, so I guess I'll be spending a good amount of next week singing in Korean alone in my apartment.

Also, sometime in the near future I will get to showcase my volleyball skills again in the finals. That's another thing to practice.

Gamsahapnida for reading!

Upcoming K-pop star.

P.S.

TWO K-pop songs for you this week...

Lipstick by Orange Caramel

Sexy Love by T-ARA

How do you like your kimchi in the morning? I like mine with a radish.

So two weekends ago I made an early morning journey to Seoul. I can't remember much of it due to drowsiness. After arrival and rendez-vous with friends, we spent a couple of hours doing some shopping ('til dropping) in Gaeksa and then made our way Yueinaru station to see the fireworks that were set to be going off for a couple of hours.

I had my first experience of busy period on the Seoul subway system at this time. There is no waiting for people to get off the train before you start getting on. Just walk towards them and hope you win. To say there were a lot of people going to see the fireworks would be an understatement. I spent most of the time like this.

The next day we made a trip to the DMZ, and we got to see North Korea from a distance wahey! During our trip we went to 'The third tunnel' which was one of four discovered tunnels from the North into the South (and vice versa I suppose) and the ceiling/earth was very low in places. So low that Becky pointed out that we looked like we were in the planet of the apes by the way that we were walking. I couldn't help but agree with her.

Last Wednesday, I joined the school staff in a game of volleyball (Quidditch) against the staff of two other schools (Beauxbatons and Durmstrang). I told the teachers 'I'm bad' and after giving a speech introducing myself ('Hello, I'm the new ancient runes teacher at Hogwarts') I took on the 'why the hell not approach' and took back position in the team. I served twice and almost wiped out a spectator each time. I think we won overall so it would seem my presence wasn't a complete curse. Get it? Curse? Because I'm a wizard. Maybe not. One can wish.

In Jeonju on Sunday, I'm pretty sure that a preacher told me that if I didn't repent my 'evil British ways' I would go to hell. Better stop riding my penny farthing to school then I guess.

:/

I've been teaching alone this last couple of days, and it's been fun! Today I had to remind some girls at the back that it was English class and not dance class. They told me it was English dance class.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Squashed.

P.S. I was 'got' by an Evil Shower Head. Only on the side but that means I'm one step closer to a fully dressed shower.

P.P.S. K-Pop this time performed by Rain, with a really cool dance.

One week later...

 Hello.

What a week. I'd say that that was all I could say but I think it would make for a very boring blog post if that really was all I could say. Plus, I can say more than 'that is all I can say'.

I started my travels (with Amy and Ekta) on Friday evening, with a bus journey from Sunchang to Gwangju, followed by a later bus from Gwangju to Daegu, where we spent the night. I stayed in my first ever love motel! We had checked out another one but it was a 'pay by the hour' kind of place and we thought that it wasn't quite suited to our needs. The man in charge of our motel assumed that I wanted to share the room with a lady who was stood behind us in the queue.

No thanks. Just me.

 

Welcome to the boudoir.

The next morning, we took a bus from Daegu to Andong, where the Andong Mask Festival was taking place. It was very big and we got to see a Lion Dance. They're shaggier than the Chinese dragon costumes, and cuter I think. Someone misheard as going to see a line dance, which would have been fun but I think I'm on the wrong continent for that.

 Cheeky lions.

We spent two days in Andong and here are some things that happened:

• A man asked if I wanted to hold his beetles, and when I asked if they would bite he said 'sure'. No thanks.
• The same man asked if I wanted to hold his tarantula, and when I asked if it would bite he said 'sure, it has venom'. Again, no thanks.
• We climbed the cliffs you can see to your right. Both the advised path and the unadvised path. That's enough on that.
• Amy spoke to some chickens in chicken. They spoke back in chicken. A dog watched the whole thing and looked pretty confused.
• I got 'married' to my neighbour Ekta and dressed up in some traditional Korean gear. See below:

For the next leg of my trip, I went to Jinju while Amy and Ekta made their way to Seoul.  Here, some fellow 9th Generation TaLKers and I managed to attend the floating lantern festival and see its opening ceremony. We saw the most amazing fireworks display from on top of the fortress on the Nam River. They just kept on getting bigger and bigger until they were filling the entire sky.  'OH MY GOD!' was gasped many a time.

The accommodation in Jinju for Monday night was an ondol room. Ondol is the underfloor heating which is found throughout Korea, and seven of us shared the floor and some 'cushy' blankets for the evening. I say that seven of us shared the room, but there was a creepy centipede in the tub, a cricket in the main room (which Florina heard moving in the night) and a spider/mosquito hybrid lurking on the bathroom door, meaning that I got to do an action film-esque kicking of the door to get out. No way was I touching that door handle with Mr Spindly having hidden away from me somewhere again.

Finally, me and my fellow scholars retired to Jeonju for Tuesday night where Anna, Dom and I went out for dinner and just ended up having pudding. Lots of pudding. We had a waffle each, a chocbingsu, some more chocolates and a smoothie to top it all off. Oh, we had a cookie too. Then we went on the swings. It makes sense to do physical activity when you've just eaten BEHEMOTH AMOUNTS of chocolate... right?

 Chocbingsu + Complimentary Cookie

Don't worry I wasn't sick.

On Thursday I went on the school trip to a couple of Gwangju museums. It was a nice day spent with both teachers and students. In one of the museums, there was a big drum, detailed on the plaque next to it as 'A big drum'. Inspiring.

Later on this morning, I'll be catching a bus to Seoul for ANOTHER (four) round(s) of fireworks, partying and a trip to the DMZ on Sunday. AND I STILL HAVEN'T PACKED!

Gamsahapnida for reading!

Busy Bee.


P.S. This is a picture of me on a cow with a funny face which I couldn't put into context anywhere else.

Transitioning to K-Dan

This last two weeks have been what I would call my ‘settling in’ phase since my time here in Korea began. I’m able to order food to a certain extent, I say to  a certain extent because I ordered one pizza, got a different pizza, but it’s okay because at least I got a pizza. I think that the students and staff are happy to have me around too, maybe too much so - I found myself balancing on one leg the other day after I was attacked by a group of first and second graders, who each took a limb. 

 

We left off last time just before I was going to visit the traditional Korean hanok village with one of the teachers at my school. Joining us was his wife and two children, another family of four and three friends of his children from their school in Jeonju.  It was a busy day of different tastes and different experiences, from a quick hike up a hill to relaxing in a gaeksa (rest spot) with a patbingsu, a kind of ice/milk/redbean/sauce ice cream kind of thingy (yes I know I did a grand job of explaining that). It was a really good day and I think that they must have liked me because they invited me to Jiri Mountain with them next month!

Since then, I’ve been to a bamboo forest, a beef and apple festival (the obvious combination DUH!) and sports day with my school. I finished off sports day playing football with a couple of teachers, one student and his dad. I told them before ‘I’m not good at football’ and I was pretty hesitant to make myself look silly. I’d already displayed my physical prowess in the tug o’ war, shoe kicking competition and ‘hit the rugby ball with a paddle’ earlier on in the day. One teacher told me to be more confident with the football after sensing this hesitation. I say sensing but he just saw the way I was playing.

Okay. Confidence, Daniel, confidence. Kick the ball. It’s okay. What’s the worst that can happen?

Five minutes later I was lying on the floor sprawled over a combination of concrete, metal grid and sand. My football career hasn’t quite taken off yet, I’ll admit.

This weekend is Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) which means I have quite a bit of free time to do some travelling. Later on today I’m heading to Daegu for the night before making my way to Andong in the morning for the Mask Dance Festival and to rendezvous with people I haven’t seen since orientation. After that, I’m not sure of my direction. At some point I will be going to the Jinju Lantern Festival, which I’m very excited for and next Thursday I’m going on a school trip to an exhibition in Gwangju, a city not too far from (Less) Sunny (by the day) Sunchang. You will read about my cross-Korean cultural trip in the next entry!

Gamsahapnida for reading!

Winner of the tri-school sports day adult shoe kicking competition.

P.S. K-POP:

Sunny Sunchang

Welcome to the big one.

On Wednesday the 24th, my mentor teacher Kim Su Young picked me up and took me for some tasty beef stew. It was very tasty. Then I registered for my Alien Registration Card. Once we'd done this, we had a nice little drive to the apartment I'll be living in for the rest of my time in Korea. Here's some pictures:

Welcome to my one room... my one room that has three rooms... and A HEATED FLOOR. As you can see I have some fashionable glow in the dark, pink in the light curtains. Try and see if you can spot me amongst the camouflage in the next picture...

 Can ya see me can ya?

 Say hello to my kitchen. The cupboards are amazingly noisy.

Say hello to the other side of my kitchen. You might be wondering, 'Daniel, is it really wise to keep your laundry in a rubbish bag considering that the last time you did that you ended up throwing your clothes away and had to go and root through a bin at 5AM before the bin men arrived?' 

My answer to that would be no, it is not wise in the slightest, and that's the end of that.

 My bathroom - with the added luxury of a sunken shower and shower curtain! 

Next up is a daily (sometimes double daily if I'm doubly dirty) terror of mine. For those of you not living in Korea, you might be surprised to find out that the sink taps and the shower can only survive if the other dies (temporarily). By this I mean I have to remember to turn the little nob off shower and on to tap, and vice versa. I also have to remember to turn the shower head away from the ideal standing place to wash ones hands. Do I remember to do either of these?

 Non. 

Has this piece of evil got the better of me? 

Not yet.

Since my encounter with Evil Toilet Tube, I'm a little more wary in soak-prone situations. As soon as I hear that pre-shower buzz, I firstly almost poo myself (I say almost, but...) and then I manage to quickly turn the tap off, feel pretty proud of my cat-like reflexes and then wonder why I can't seem to turn the bloody nob onto tap. 

The longer I avoid it, the closer I'm getting to it happening and this really, really worries me.

 And this is my mug. Yes, it has a shovel on it. Yes, a ship's wheel and a life ring too. Oh Korea.

Enough of that! After I arrived and settled in I went for dinner with the teachers from my school, who were really welcoming and I was asked to give a speech. The speech went down fairly well I'm pleased to announce. Arriving home, I got to properly meet my new neighbours Amy, Ekta and Eric. I don't have any photos of them except a picture of Amy's leg and arm that I took accidentally while I was messing around on my new phone. A couple of days later I climbed a mountain and on top of it found a pagoda, a lovely view and an outside gym. I wondered how many people get to the top and think 'This is just not enough, I must exercise.'

Also, here in Sunchang they like to dry peppers in the middle of the pavement. But I suppose they've gotta get that REALLY GOOD red pepper paste made somehow!

 

That's a whole lotta peppers.

Last weekend I went to Jeonju and Buan. In Buan we went to the beach. It was really nice and we got to see another great view from another of Korea's many pagodas! We also visited the cliffs you see below. They're very famous because of a poet who found them so beautiful that he jumped off them. Make of that what you will.

 THEN I SAW A PUPPY! A REALLY CUTE WHITE AND PURPLE PUPPY!

Next weekend I'm heading to Jeonju Hanok Village after being invited to go with one of the teachers from my school. A hanok is a traditional Korean house, and apparently the hanok village is one of the best places to visit in Jeollabuk-do (my province) so I'm looking forward to it!

Gamsahapnida for reading!

Nautical themed mug enthusiast.

 P.S. K-POP

One Step Closer.

Friday was our final day in Jochiwon and after plenty of hugs were given, we were all loaded onto our coach heading for Jeonju in Jeonbuk/Jeollabuk-do province, the location for the final leg of orientation. Since arriving, we've had a 99 second sports competition, waterballoon fight, arts and crafts day after our trip to Sunchang was cancelled due to the typhoon (THINGS BE FLYIN') and snacks. Lots of snacks. Being in a bigger city is good although the Norebang (karaoke rooms for those who don't remember) here is slightly less glamorous than in Jochiwon.

So on my first day here, I had an accident that looked like another type of accident. After borrowing some loo roll from a fellow co-scholar, I went to the toilet down the hall and found 4-5 buttons next to the loo. Being stupid, I pressed the closest one without thinking, just to see what it did, you know? I couldn't have pressed a worse button. After pressing it, a little tube popped out of the toilet and this is when I realised... I've pressed the bum washer button. Bearing in mind I was still in a state of full dress stood over the toilet, I thought to myself: 'This measly little tube can't POSSIBLY get me while I'm stood over here'.

How wrong I was.

And then it happened, a REALLY BIG jet of water came flying at me and hit me right where it looked like I'd wet myself. Diving to the side, I waited for it to end while it sprayed against the cubicle door until I'd successfully created a mini-flood. At this point I grabbed the bin in the cubicle and tried to catch the water coming out of the toilet. It didn't stop. I eventually noticed a little X button which I pressed and finally put an end to Evil Toilet Tube's reign over the cubicle. After putting down some towels that were conveniently in the loo I wondered how frequently people end up doing this.

Tomorrow I'll be meeting my mentor teacher for the second time, and she'll be taking me to visit my school and show me my apartment. I found out that my Grade 3 class has one student in it. ONE!


Finally, Here's your latest dose of K-Pop:

Gamsahapnida for reading!

Conqueror of the Evil Toilet Tube

Souled!

My weekend started with an early bus ride to Seoul. I've managed to pick up the acute ability of falling to sleep in almost any vehicle I find myself in for more than five minutes so in my eyes I teleport everywhere. Once we were there, the masses of green flooded to NANTA - a mainly non-verbal cooking/dancing/drumming/martial arts/vegetable chopping show that was really funny and very interactive.

We thought we'd won.

Once again I was picked out of a crowd and asked to make my way to the stage (my first was at the Peach festival and that led to my winning of the box of peaches) and once there, I was given a chef's hat, a giant smashy thing for my left hand and a smaller smashy thing for my right hand. The one in the left hand to whack a barrel and the one in my right to pound some dough. At the same time, I had to keep an eye on my co-chef who was preparing pancakes and putting them on a conveyor belt for me to collect and put on a pile of other trays of pancakes and then go back to smashing and whacking and doing other angry sounding actions like that to that poor, unfortunate bit of dough.

Does that sound like a lot to do?

IT WAS.

As well as that, 'Sexy Guy' (one of the characters in a cast of five) started pulling my jeans up while I was walloping with the smashy things I'd been given. I fell over once and stumbled backwards once as well.  Unfortunately, my dough-killing and pancake collecting skills were not good enough and Blue Team lost.

GOT ME A FREE PHOTO OF IT THOUGH DIDN'T I!?

After all of this I went and had a sweat in Itaewon, and then I went and had a sweat in Hongdae and after a night in Playground Park I headed back to the Jimjilbang - a HOT KOREA sauna/spa/bathhouse, where we were staying and where I... yes, you guessed it, had a sweat.  I'm not sure I've stopped sweating for more than an hour since I set off 16 days ago. Even the cheese sandwiches my mom packed for the journey started sweating once we hit Shanghai.

I'm moving out of Jochiwon on Friday and heading for Jeonju for Part II of orientation - I will be making red pepper paste and I'm pretty sure I won't remember to not touch my eyes.

Gamsahapnida for reading!

Smashy

Spicing up my life.

So on Monday night we went to Nurebong (Karaoke Rooms!) for the first time - or as it said on the door a 'singing practice room'. This was not practice. From the performances that came out that night you'd think we'd been preparing for this for years (I have been). We were truly mesmerising. Finishing off the night with a total of five Spice Girls songs (yes five - I'm not sure how many they performed at the closing ceremony but I'd imagine we sang more) we walked home in the pouring rain, which is becoming more and more frequent after our first week of HOT KOREA. No sideways rain as of yet though, which is always nice to avoid.

A couple of days before our concert, we went to the Presidential retreat I mentioned last time. Unfortunately it was raining there as well and we found solace in watching a fountain display from an umbrella. Luxury. The soundtrack to said fountain show was bizarre and varied, with the Pirates of the Caribbean theme tune making an appearance, as well as some K-Pop and Time to Say Goodbye. Ironically, this was not the final song as we had assumed. Oh no. This was far from over. Forty minutes later we wondered what we were still doing there. Everyone else had bailed by Dancing Queen. There's only so many dance moves a fountain can perform. Please see below one of the most popular ones.

Apologies for the tree in the way. He wanted to watch too. I'm pretty sure he didn't stay for as long as we did.

I'm becoming more and more educated in K-Pop every day. My favourite K-pop song is below for either your enjoyment or your resentment:

Monster by Big Bang

I've also found out about my school and my new upcoming life in Sunchang-gu. My apartment has a bed, a desk and a wardrobe (which is more than some people get) and a lady down the hall who plays her TV really loudly and doesn't shut her front door. I hope she doesn't disturb me while I'm trying to watch some K-Drama.  My school has a total of around 25 students. That isn't a typo. The ENTIRE student body is made up of around 25 children. I'm actually really excited about it!

There's a handy sign in the toilet that urges us not to put wooden chopsticks down the toilet (making me wonder if we are allowed to put metal chopsticks down there - I must remember to ask at the front desk). I'm really trying my hardest not to but it's just so tempting. It's actually worrying to think how many people decided to do this before it had to become a rule.

Gamsahapnida for reading!

Rainy Spice

The scholarly activities of a scholar.

So I've just been measured, weighed, had an eye and colour perception test, had my blood taken and been X-rayed as part of the TaLK mandatory medical check-up. I had to wee in a cup too, something I originally thought worrying as they initially told us we had to be observed. Luckily I had the luxury of a private cubible (so kind) in the men's bogs. I was a bit dubious of the fact that somebody would be paid to watch people wee all day. What a CV booster that would have been for them.

Over the last week we've had lectures on how we're going to cope, what we're going to be doing and how to (attempt to) control our classes as apparently the kids are crazy. Then we had a couple of creative lessons (painting and fan making) and a physical lesson, Taekwondo. We had this on day one. I really would have loved to have been an observer of myself and the others to see us all have genuine difficulty telling the difference between our left and our right. After an hour of jumping round and amazingly not knocking anybody out with a stray limb, we had a nice walk through HOT KOREA back to our dorms.

I've also painted what somebody with a really active imagination might possibly consider an orchid, see below:

Today I'm going to a peach festival. Yes, a festival for PEACHES. Apparently they love their festivals in Korea. My province is famous for it's red chilli paste ('butter') so hopefully I'll be able to go to that festival and set my mouth on fire. All in due time though. I can already hear the partay music from town, and there's events like a peach eating contest, peach picking and  face massages with peach oil. Expect photos like this to follow. Also, the grasshoppers are REALLY big here, so that photo is probably to scale.

Tomorrow I'm off to ChungNamDea, the presidential retreat for, well... presidents. Then another week of lectures. WOOOO!

Gamsahapnida for reading!

James Henry Trotter

P.S. I don't think the grasshoppers wear monocles here, but I haven't been here that long so you never know!

I'm feelin hot hot hot, da da da da daa da!

It's currently 10am and I'm already feeling like I need my second shower of the day.

My flight here (12 hours, 17 hour wait, 2 hours) was long and consisted of uncomfortable naps, uncomfortable seats and uncomfortable noises coming from the man sat next to me, who wouldn't wake up when I needed to go to the toilet either. Not even after a few brisk taps to the shoulder.

But I made it! We, meaning me and two other scholars I met at the airport, had a nice journey in a big car with no seat belts (we didn't need them according to the driver) and a cushy leather roof, which I assumed was to soften the blow if we did topple over without seatbelts available. Finally, I arrived at Jochiwon Sejong Campus of the South Korean University. Phew. And it only took just over 32 hours.

:D

Last night we went to a bar/corner shop and drank some 'soju' - a kind of moonshine-esque drink which tastes like watered down vodka with sugar in it (Yum Yum I'm sure you are thinking) but at a pound a bottle (1,100 Won - I told you I'm a soon-to-be millionaire) it did the trick. After two or three near-miss-sicks you can actually stomach a shot of it! 

Today we're off to Seoul for our opening ceremony (we might be on TV!) and a scavenger hunt - on the map of which they've highlighted where Burger King is, just in case we haven't adjusted to Korean Food yet. On the flight I opened my 'butter' to find it was actually Red Chilli Paste.

I've already started kind of sleeptalking to my roommate as well, by kind of I mean sitting bolt upright and being very confused. Better to get him accustomed to it though - there's still three weeks left of orientation!

Gamsahapnida for reading!

Sweaty

Final Preparations!

Annyeonghaseyo!

Welcome to youKOREAzy, the blog which will tell you of the tales of a British graduate becoming a Korean millionaire. It's not as impressive as it sounds. It's just the currency.

For those who don't know what I'm ACTUALLY going to South Korea for, I'm going to be teaching English in an elementary school from September to February, but I leave tomorrow for orientation where we get to learn things like papercraft, Korean history, classroom management and the thing I'm looking forward to most - K-Pop Dance lessons, hopefully to something like this:

As many of you know, I'm leaving tomorrow and the last two weeks have been KOREAzy, with trying to sort out my visa (three trips to the embassy), criminal record check (which I was quite pleased to discover was clear) and try and find time to say goodbye to everyone.

Tomorrow is also the final day of my very extended 21st birthday, with celebrations happening across the country. Really. Lancaster to London. I feel like the Queen. I had my 21st party on Saturday night and it was very good.. as were the egg mayo sandwiches as I pointed out many times in one of my drunken speeches. I'd say thanks to all those that came, but once again I think I covered that in a speech, not as much as egg mayo sandwiches though.

Today I'm off to get my final vaccination for Japanese Encephalitis, which you might be interested to know is made from the brains of mice, which is just lovely. Please don't be alarmed if the next time you see me I look like this.

Gamsahapnida for reading! 

Mousey