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