Word got round that it was my birthday. It wasn't. I went with it anyway.
This post is coming to you from my school desk at lunch time. The writing of it is powered by leftover Halloween candy which SOMEHOW found it's way to my desk and from there into my mouth. Funny how things just happen sometimes...
Anyway, Halloween was fun and stressful. Being held hostage against a wall by a horde of children was interesting. Even after showing them I had no candy in my pockets they still felt the need to give me a pat down. I think that is the closest I have ever come to actually being mugged.
They weren't too impressed with my picture of a pumpkin vomiting into a toilet, either. I had to explain to them many times that it wasn't a pumpkin that was due to be eaten after it's trip to the loo.
'TEACHER! DIRTY!'
And after a week of Halloween, I am thankful to say it is all over and I am back to regular curriculum. In class today, we have been doing a role play about a travelling band of musicians who just happen to be animals. The students' favourite character was the singing rooster. He was mine too.
Gamsahapnida for reading,
P.S. K-Pop by Lee Jung Hyun with 'V'. It fits with the Halloween theme, too.
I didn't do very well on my previous bucket list, so this year I am going to endeavour to do as many of them as possible. I had good intentions last year, but some I changed my mind about (temple stay), whereas others didn't come to fruition as the season passed (skiing). Others were just difficult (catch a dragonfly) or very strange to do as a planned activity (sleep in a pagoda).
So here is the new list for 2014. It includes things I missed last year, things I have added and things I have changed. Any suggestions might be added.
Three weeks ago I landed in the land of the morning calm, or for me, the land of the frantic morning rush to get ready. It doesn't quite have the same ring to it though does it?
After my two months of living as a socialite, I started off my new year with just one more week of the high life (for good measure) before attending a week long orientation (no crotch wetting incident this year: see my blog post 'One Step Closer' to find out more).
After orientation, I met up with my new co-teacher and came to school. The problem with having clothes in three different places is that you might not have enough clothes to wear to school yet. Cue the 'Daniel wears a blue suit at work week'. I did have enough shirts though. A co-teacher did ask if my tie was my favourite tie. Well, I suppose considering at the time it was my only tie, then yes, it was my favourite tie. I have since DOUBLED my tie collection. I can almost hear you gasp.
I also, to add to the classy impression I am sure I am already giving you, managed to find some street furniture to make my room seem a little cosier. While me and my accomplice were carrying a reclining chair back to my apartment, a security guard shouted us from down the street and we thought 'Oh, maybe this wasn't trash after all'. He walked slowly up to us, and then tore off a sticker on the side of the chair and bade us farewell (in Korean). The problem with living in a small town is that people might see you occasionally carrying furniture around and you might get a bit of a reputation. I would imagine my current reputation is somewhere around that of Mr Twit. I am waiting for the day when a student asks "Teacher, part time job is moving furniture?".
I also went to the Seoul fireworks festival this year and ACTUALLY got to see some fireworks. HOORAH. We managed to position ourselves just on the other side of a bridge and a tree to the fireworks, but we shuffled and made people uncomfortable and they shuffled and therefore we had more room to shuffle. By the end of all this shuffling we had quite a good view.
Incheon, the new city where I am living, is exciting and in close proximity to Seoul. I'm looking forward to a good year here! I am currently in the process of making my 2013/14 Korean Wishlist, so the next blog post will be about that.
Sorry for the lack of photos, I don't know where my memory card is for my camera. What I do have though is a picture of people queuing (QUEUING!?) up for some squid, a mega treat for the Koreans.
Once he had seen this truck, there was no going back for Oliver.
Gamsahapnida for reading,
Unofficial and picky trash collector of Yeongjeong Island.
P.S. K-Pop by Crayon Pop, with Bar Bar Bar (Does anybody else hear something else in English for the second line?)
In the final few weeks of my first year of living in Korea, I visited two beaches. The first was Haeundae Beach in Busan.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh
We were in Busan for two and a half days and me and my companion Jennifer spent almost the entirety of the time on the beach. During this trip, we saw a lot of what I will refer to as 'beach chicken people'. Beach chicken people are noisy individuals that walk up and down with probably cold chicken shouting 'beer! chicken! beer and chicken! chicken and beer!'. As you can imagine, beach chicken people are quite annoying.
At one point, while in the sea, I quickly dipped my head underwater to wet my hair. In the 0.00648 seconds I spent underwater, a young lady in a rubber ring managed to position herself directly above where my head was set to emerge. Cue creepy foreigner doing a jaws-esque attack on an unsuspecting victim.
Also, Korean sun in HOT KOREA is hot ('no way' I hear you say). We were both bright pink after our full first day on the beach. Jenny even got a 'woah' during a trip to the little girls room.
It was also on this trip that I observed the kind of things Koreans are willing to take into the sea with them. I have drawn up a comparison table to show the differences between what Koreans take into the sea versus what I am accustomed to taking into the sea with me. Please find this helpful table below.
Acceptable
items in the Korean sea
Things
I am used to seeing in the sea
People
People
Flotation devices
Flotation devices
Swimming costumes
Swimming costumes - sometimes ;)
Sunglasses
Hats and caps
Flip Flops
T-shirts
Dresses
Mobile phones around your neck in a plastic protecty thingy
REALLY!?
The second trip was to Daecheon beach, with lovely chap Oliver in tow.
Couldn't get a picture
The weather was not so favourable. We had planned to go for one night at least, maybe two. We spent about 4/5 hours there.
Told ya.
Arriving on the beach, we realised we were perhaps the most pitiful people on the beach, as everyone else had tents, umbrellas, food and other beach things. We had what you can see below.
They're not even beach towels.
We had a quick dip in the sea, and this time I didn't headbutt somebody in the.... butt (headbutt... get it?). Upon our fabulous return to our palace on the beach, I decided to bury my companion.
A pillow, for added comfort.
After his burial, it was my turn. When I was almost fully sanded, the rain started. Following the rain, came the thunder. But I will be damned if I get buried in the sand and don't even get a photo out of it!
Rain was going in my eyes, so I look great...
Following the rain on the beach, I had a lovely freezing cold shower followed by a bit of pudding and then a bus ride home. What a wonderful beach holiday.
Gamsahapnida for reading,
King of the beach
P.S. K-Pop by Cho Yong Pil with 'Bounce'. Skip to 0:25 for the music unless you like people screaming (I do, that's why I attacked beach girl).
During my first month in Koreazy, I created a list of things I wanted to complete. Well, I didn't complete them all but I'm staying for another year so poo you.
#3: Try octopus with Anna
I have now eaten octopus many times. The first, however, was to be with good friend Anna, pictured below. I didn't like octopus on my first try, and I still don't like it now. It did open me up to trying lots more strange foods, some tasty, some questionable, and some downright horrible.
Photo by wonderful Karen Dang
#6: Go to a soju tent
A soju tent is a big orange tent where they sell soju and simple foods to be consumed alongside soju. After a trip to the zoo, me and my coteacher decided to visit a soju tent. The tents we were visiting are situated in a sort of car park (underground style) and we were joined by my good friend Keith. It was warm, tasty and odd at the same time.
#7: Go to a trick-art museum
#11: Go to a theme park
I visited LotteWorld theme park in central Seoul. We managed to go on a fair few rides, and I convinced my companion Oliver to go on a vile one for the second time with the promise of a waffle. A waffle that I ate.
Muahaha.
#12: Ascend Namsan Tower
#14: Go horse-riding
Part of our itinerary for the Jeju Island school trip was horse riding. In the photo is the vice principal and a first grader, as well as my horse's head (still attached to the horse and definitely not in my enemy's bed)
#17: Go to a cat and/or a dog cafe
I've been to the 'Coffee and Cat' cat cafe four times now. The cats are often uninterested unless you have chicken, in which case they are extremely interested. Some are nice, some are cruel (the skinny ones) and some are just BLOOMIN' RUDE! Rude cat example: I go to the cat cafe and being the productive soul that I am I decide to take my laptop, in it's case. But being the lazy soul that I am I don't use my laptop and it stays in it's case on the counter. Rude cat wakes up, comes over to my laptop case, sniffs it, and then goes to town on it with it's lovely sharp claws. Then rude cat wanders off and goes back to sleep. I didn't even get a stroke out of it.
The dog cafe was more entertaining, with dogs chasing each other round, eyeing me up for my strawberry bubble tea and dipping their noses into crotches (mine and Jenny's), bags (Jenny's) and cups (everyone's). A little bit smelly but a lot of fun!
If you would like to see a funny dog playing on a chair, watch this video.
#20: Eat hanjeongsik, a side dish only feast!
This is me and Woo Young enjoying (or about to enjoy!) a tasty side dish only feast. You might be able to see a fish on the table, and I'm calling out a reader here (SASHA) who asked if they were decorative fish. Just in case any of you were wondering, they weren't decorative fish.
Failed attempt: Catch a dragonfly out of the air.
I did try and catch a dragonfly, but it wasn't out of the air and I think I killed it. Not exactly what I was going for.
I visited the great shabu shabu restaurant 'Chaesundang' (채선당 for the maps) in Chungjangro, downtown Gwangju, with my sister. She was the first student in the Noodle Eating 101 program. It is a program fraught with worry, but one that pays off eventually. Maybe one day I will have to do a course on eating fried chicken with chopsticks, but until I personally get a grip on that, it ain't gonna happen.
So, here is my first success story for Noodle Eating 101:
Step one: Pick up noodles. Look somewhat worried.
Step two: Look at noodles. Look somewhat more worried.
Step three: Go for it. Throw as many noodles as possible in your mouth. Seriously, pile them in. Worrying still on the increase.
Step four: The difficult part. The slurp. The main idea here is to slurp without flicking noodle juice everywhere. This is perhaps the most difficult part to master. At this point worrying is at it's height. It is also the point at which you cannot turn back.
Step five: You did it! Give yourself a big pat on the back, but not too hard! Don't want those noodles to make a reappearance!
Hello readers and lookers at pictures that I took or stole,
I have a new addition to my top favourite foods here in
Korea. It is called Shabu Shabu and it’s a meal that transforms as you eat it. The
first step is boiling vegetables (mushrooms, leek, lettuce, assorted leaves,
etc.) in a nice tasty broth. Add some meat and eat. The lady cooking for us was surprised that I
had eaten the leek… more of a broth flavouring than an edible veggie
apparently. Ain’t nothing wrong with chompin’ on a leek.
After finishing eating this, noodles are added to the broth. In the restaurant I visited recently, the noodles were bright orange (pepper noodles) and green (chlorophyll something or other noodles).
Noodle Eating 101
Step one: Pick up noodles. Look somewhat worried.
Step two: Look at noodles. Look somewhat more worried.
Step three:Go for it. Throw as many noodles as possible in your mouth. Worrying still on the increase.
Step four: The difficult part. The slurp. The main idea here is to slurp without flicking noodle juice everywhere. At this point worrying is at its height.
Step five: You did it! You ate almost three whole noodles! Congratulations! Now for the rest of the bowl....
Silly little scared rabbit. You will discover more about him later, but I find his facial expression is pretty on par with the feeling of looking at how many noodles you have left, and considering if you will reach the bottom of the bowl or if your worry overdrive will kick in before then, leaving you a nervous, blubbering, noodle juice flicking mess.
Back to the transforming dinner. After slurping up the noods and/or drowning in noodle juice flickings, rice is thrown in, as well as
an egg, it is beaten rather viciously and the broth turns into a rich and tasty rice porridge.
D-E-LICIOUS
Good Brekkies!
Another food related challenge I have tasked myself with these last two weekends has been to make nice breakfasts.
The first of these was a Full English:
Hot dog, Egg a la scramblee, Bread a la eggy, Egg a la friedy (not to be confused with egg a la friday), bread a la friedy (also not to be confused with the friday variety of bread), mushrooms, samgyeopsal (pork belly), fried chicken with honey sauce (was improvising a bit by this point) and one lonely rice cake. Drinks were juice from an apple and juice from a teabag. Oh and tomatty sauce.
Week Two was easier, being a continental breakfast:
Croissant, pain au chocolat, apple jammy jam, strawberry jammier jam, strawberry yog, chocobananaballs and a cup o' coff (not to be confused with the equally delicious cup o' cough)
Jeju Bound
Tomorrow I will be embarking upon the first of two upcoming trips to Jeju Island,
this time as part of a school trip. We are going for two nights and three days.
I translated the itinerary into English and one of the highlights was ‘answering
ambiguous questions about dinosaurs’. I haven’t done my research yet, or
completed the section of my Korean textbook relating to dinosaur conversations,
but maybe my experience of actually being a velociraptor will be enough to
impress and answer some of the more difficult dinosaur questions. Other things
on our schedule are horse riding, another trip to the miniature statue park,
hiking and probably a fair bit of wandering around looking lost and confused
(the latter is on my itinerary only).
A patch to call my own, maybe.
I turned up to school last Wednesday, expecting to co-teach
a class. Arriving at my classroom, I found it empty. It reminded me of a time
in high school where I turned up for school an hour early and wandered around
wondering where everyone was and if they were all playing a joke on me (all one
thousand of them). This time was different, I turned up on time and after a quick
wander around school I was pointed to a mysterious section of the school
grounds. Arriving at said mysterious section, I found the whole school body,
armed with shovels and garden tools attacking a horde of zombies tending
to the school garden. I was promptly given a shovel and started shifting earth,
not quite knowing what I was doing. This went on for a while. I think I might have my own patch of land for growing vegetables now. Exciting!
I'm being helpful.. promise.
Jeonju Zoo
How do you do?
Twice in the past three weeks I’ve been to Jeonju Zoo. I
learnt that it is the only place in Korea where eagles and chickens live in the
same area and are actually friends. Pigeons and rabbits also share an
enclosure. Yup. That’s Jeonju Zoo.
Chickens are friends, not food.
Pigeon/Rabbit enclosure
And here is one of my newest friends of the animal variety. His name is, as you read earlier, Silly little scared rabbit.
He did not move from this position at all, making it quite easy to take a photo.
<-- *tremble tremble*
*TREMBLE TREMBLE* -->
My most recent trip to the zoo was with the very kind Jeong In-Soon, who was a supply teacher at my school last year and is a talented artist. My wall is home to one of her creations! We ate seafood soup at a well-being restaurant, and it was tasty. After dinner, we headed to aforementioned zoo, looked at the animals and plants, before grabbing a coffee and relaxing in the park. Looking forward to meeting up with her again!
Here we are hanging around Deokjin Park, making trouble, pushing people into the lake, and spray painting some graffiti.
Gamsahapnida for reading,
Alan Titchmarsh
P.S.
Three K-pop entries this week:
1)Oops! By G.NA
Daniel, will your mom like this one?
The
chorus probably, if she manages to make it through the opening rap.
I regret to say that it has indeed been another long while since I wrote here. I'll write now about some things that have happened.
Home stay
I've had a little work done.
In February, the kindergarten teacher at my school invited me to stay with her and her family for a night in Jeonju. Over the course of the weekend, we ate a lot, visited a temple and I won around 4000 won in bets with her husband. Pictured above is the family minus her husband's mom who also lives with them. She was sweet and would occasionally appear out of her room and gesture for me to eat a lot. I took her advice of course, not that I needed to. In the photo, from left to right: Mi Gyeong, the kindergarten teacher at my school, and next to her, her daughter Erica who has just returned from a study abroad program and is fantastic at English. Taking centre stage is Won Kyu, her husband and seemingly my employer for the weekend. Next to him is Simon, who I shared a room with during my time there. In his sleep he punched me in the head a few times. They were a really sweet and lovely family and I am looking forward to the next time I get to meet up with them all!
Below is another picture of me and Mi Gyeong while picking strawberries on a spontaneous school trip (something I think probably illegal in England but here they just do it). One of my kindergarteners held my hand for the most of the journey to the farm, and if she did decide to leave me for a minute to chase one of the other kids, she'd always be back, holding out her hand expectantly. What a sweetie.
This was attempt #3. Attempt #1 was in a dark karaoke room, and attempt #2 was in a dark area of the strawberry farm. Who knew you need light to take a photo!?
Teaching three lovely little ladies
Me and ma bezziez.
Pictured above are my incredibly sweet kindergarten class. This photo was taken at the end of a class that goes like this: I walk in. I discover they are hiding from me. I spot them within 3.5 milliseconds. I pretend I haven't seen them and look around the room for a while. Eventually, I tell them I've found them. They scream. They run away from me. I chase them.
On the day of the photo, they had tied their hair on top of their heads when they jumped out and ran away. On a slightly related note, they sometimes say I have gorilla hair. Recently they've taken to putting their faces actually on my face to look at my eyes as close as possible. Anyway, they are really sweet and they are the one thing that cheers me up after one of my more challenging classes.
Slow gym dog
This is a tiny little dog I met in the foyer of the gym in Sunchang. It is, by far, the slowest little doggy I have ever encountered. It's tiny little legs moved it at just a little over snails pace, and wanted to be stroked so badly. It's a shame it has to expend so much effort for a little love.
After extensive tests, it has been determined that this dog is not suitable for running machines.
Friendly Temple Dog
This is me, a new Sunchang English teacher called Evan, and some random guy in a red jumper. HAR HAR.
Really now, this is a wonderful little post-pup called Homer who calls a local mountain temple home. Her Korean name is Gom (곰), meaning bear I think. Perhaps the owners are confused as to what animal they are taking care of. On my latest trip , his owner, the monk in charge of Jangdeoksa buddhist temple, invited us into his home for SO MUCH tea. It just kept on pouring, and I was rather eager to use the facilities by the time that we were leaving. She has a particular liking for a working glove that's near to one of the statues, which she has picked up and played with on both of my recent trips.
Selling myself
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a date auction. Originally, I wasn't going to take part, but then the dangerous part of me that thinks 'Why not!?' took over. After a self introduction and Q&A session, I was sold for 75,000 wonzillas. All for charity... AIN'T I NICE EH!?
I went on the date yesterday, and we ate duck stew. It was tasty.
Hi, I'm Dan, and I'm a velociraptor. MLYARRRRRRRR
감사합니다 for reading,
Kindergarten Cop.
P.S. K-pop this time by G-Dragon and Minzi, performing 'Missing you'.
I hope you enjoy this one as much as the rest of them, mom.
So, the one blog a day challenge came to a fairly abrupt end with the arrival of friends. So here are all numbers missed out, not taken on the right days and often with only a tenuous link to the title... I only had so many photos from January to work with.
Someone you love
Here are three of my Kindergarten students, Hee-Gyeong, Dong-Hyeon and Seung-Hui. Very adorable. Maybe love is a little strong. I think they're really cute and enjoy their company. On the side there is Mike (Hi Mike), a friend who came to visit with another friend of mine and wife of Mike, Sasha. They joined me in school on the day that we made paper dinosaurs, an almost entirely improvised class after my brownie making class wasn't possible due to too few students. They had fun but I didn't finish mine and ending up making a turtle partly in it's shell still... at least that's what I said it was.
Reflection
The purpose of this building I cannot remember, yet what I do know is that this is a rebuild of an earlier building that was destroyed many years ago. In the frozen lake surrounding it, the reflections of the pillars seemed to cast the illusion of dragons in the water to the Koreans of the past. Before its destruction, this will have been very grand, but when it was rebuilt it was urged by the people to be more humble. Because of this new humbleness, the man tasked with the contruction buried two giant bronze dragons nearby, which were only rediscovered in the 1990s. They were buried over 400 years ago.
We giggled at the thought of him, after being told to make it humble, being asked 'Well, it's not like you had them giant bronze dragons made yet is it!?' and he was like 'LOL NO DON'T BE SILLY' and then had to rush out in the night with his spade to bury them.
Your shoes
A couple of weeks ago, me and some friends went to 'Coffee and Cat' in Gwangju, a cat cafe. They had around 15 cats according the website and came in many different shapes and sizes... some highlights were:
Shocked face cat
Grumpy face fluffy white cat
Grumpy face ginger cat (Sasha tried to pick him up... he went 'MAWWRRRAAAEEEIIIIIOOOUU'
Fluffy head and tail, shaved body cat
Sleepy face cat
Sleepy cat, as shown above resting on my slippers (this is where the shoes bit comes in)
Something old
This is an old and unusual bracelet of my Grandma's.
Guilty pleasure
Karaoke + Spice Girls: Double guilty pleasure.
Something you made
I needed a little help with this one, as it was very late in the day, so Anna suggested I took a photo of her. The reasoning behind it is that I made her happy by being there.
Colour
During our tour of one of Seoul's five palaces, Gyeongbukgong Palace, we were able to see the daily changing of the guard for the main gate. Lots of colourful outfits, lots of loud music and surprisingly a lack of people guarding the gate while the guard was being changed.
Lunch
A brunch feast prepared for me by a friend, including bulgogi (beef), rice, kimchi, beansprouts, broccoli and seaweed soup. All delicious.
Light
Light fingers were needed for this one. We played Jenga in the Dice cafe, a board game cafe in Gwangju. The first time I went there, I didn't realise it was a board game cafe... and I was on my own. They asked me when my friends would arrive. I had to tell them they weren't coming and that I didn't need a game to play.
A while later, while sobbing and shrieking to myself due to loneliness, they came and told me that they had jigsaws and I could play one. Just a small one please. The smallest one they had was Winnie the Pooh.
The second time around I'd managed to pay enough people/escorts to act as my friends. We played many games, including giant Jenga as shown above (we won), a dice game called bluff which was baffling, monkeys and a card game called sequence.
Inside your fridge
Here we have two boxes of paste, an almost off cabbage, some gochujang red pepper sauce, some radish and mysterious stuff that came with the radish, tomatoes, rice cakes, lemongrass, a giant box of kimchi, beansprouts and butter. There's some milk on the side too but it is probably cheese as I went away for a few days.
Nature
Or rather, the opposite. This was a strange lady/machine we encountered in the Seoul coex mall (a big shopping centre). She was eager to help us, yet a bit... robotic.
You, again.
This is me dragging along a stubborn pig at the trick eye museum in Seoul, there were plenty of photos for me to jump in on, and this is but one of them.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my January (kind-of) and if you didn't it's over now so you can say 'oh well' and carry on reading other stuff.
Gamsahapnida for reading,
Couldn't shift that piggy.
P.S. I went to see BIG BANG live in Seoul. During a solo song by Daesung, he grew wings and flew above the crowd. It was impressive. Here is a different performance of the same song.
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