Outside restaurant with pretty lights. 

The cutest Pumpkin Soup! 

Dinner at Italian Restaurant in Seoul 

Dinner Show goes Wrong

One thing that we really wanted to do while we are here was go to a 'Dinner Show.' It's a typically tourist thing to do in Korea. You eat traditional Korean food and watch a dancing show. I think that most of the time it is Korean traditional dancing. Unfortunately things didn't quite pan out the way we had planned......

I had trudged through the internet information about Dinner Show's and found that there are several places in Seoul that we could go. Our ECC boss Michael was kind enough to make the booking for us for Saturday night (25th March) under Mr Yu's name(the big boss). Eek!

Clare and I joined Julia and Kelly on their trip to Seoul before the dinner show. Clare wanted to go to the english book store with Julia and I decided that I would help Kelly in her camera buying mission at Yongsan.

The camera buying went great by the way. Kelly bought a camera identical to the one we have for a slightly better price. The salesman was eyeing her up for his girlfriend quite obviously so gave her a good deal!

Prior to the dinner we spent a little time in Insa Dong. It is a market filled with stalls and shops that sell all kinds of arts and crafts like beautiful chests, lights or just nic nacs. There was also a gallery with some stunning paintings and sculptures. I will definitely go back once I get a full pay cheque!

Insa Dong is on the way towards Anguk Station which apparently is on the way to the Dinner Show. As we made our way there we managed to lose Julia and Rachel on the way as they succumbed to the call of a massage. Meanwhile the rest of us bumbled our way towards the Dinner Show, at least we thought we were going in the right direction....

First up we started walking from the wrong entrance of the station so were in the wrong direction. Then a woman we asked on the street recommended that we take a taxi to the Dinner Show as it was a long way. We jumped in a cab and tried to give the driver the address of the restaurant while he drove in the opposite direction. He didn't understand our instructions so I had the ingenious idea of calling the restaurant and making them talk to the taxi driver.

The taxi driver had a very heated conversation with the restaurant people and drove us for about 10 minutes in a complete circle so that we were back where we started walking! He took our 6000 won fare and he started to get out of the cab. I thought - excellent he must be walking us to the restaurant and we all hopped out. Mr Taxi had other ideas. He pointed to the pavement and said "Wait a moment." got back in his cab with another fare and then drove off.

We were bemused - what are we waiting for? I thought perhaps, the restaurant people were coming to get us and so we waited for about 10 minutes. By this time it was well past the time that we had to be at the restaurant and we were all a bit hungry and frustrated. Julia and Rachel were about to join us and so we aborted the Dinner Show plan and scouted around Insa Dong for some where to eat.

We lucked out in finding a really good Italian restaurant. We drank Australian wine from huge shiny glasses, what a treat! My meal was excellent and the restaurant decor was goregeous. We almost felt like we were outside of Korea. Even outside the restaurant there were fairy lights all over the trees as you can see in the photo.

Our boss Michael was not impressed that we didn't turn up to the dinner show despite our explainations about how hard we tried to get there. I guess we won't be asking him to book us into restaurants in the future.

I still hope that we get to see a dinner show but still I wouldn't have missed our great italian night for anything.

Just another week in Uijongbu

It's Saturday morning a little chilly outside and I am really enjoying quiet time with my cup of instant coffee.

Coffee in South Korea is a bit different to New Zealand. Most of the instant coffee you find is in a one cup package that you tear the top off and pour into your mug and add hot water. In the package there is sugar and some kind of milk powder. I guess it is lucky that I like my coffee white with one sugar as all of them are like that. I really had been missing regular tea though. It seems as though there are dozens of other types of tea but not good old breakfast variety. Clare and I had been scouring the aisles of the larger supermarkets with no success. Clare's mum was nice enough to send us a package with 3 varieties of our favourite tea and a whoel bunch of other goodies.

Soon after that package arrived we discovered a supermarket very close to us that has Lipton tea! Murphy's Law.

The week at school was pretty good. I felt a lot more in control of my kindy kids. Either, they are getting used to the school environment or I have become more competent in getting them to behave. I say this when I still had 3 boys hide in the bathroom right before there was a school assembly! How embarrassing.

I can now get them to sit down quickly by counting down from 5 and threatening to rub their stars off the white board. I made one boy named Baron cry 3 days in a row over his behaviour stars.

The elementary classes are okay. I have a number of favourite classes and a couple that I loathe. It is hard to develop a relationship and/or mutual respect with the kids when you have such a limited band of conversation. "How are you today" " I am fine thank you."

Clare and I have quickly developed tools for maintaining order - putting kids in the corner on a chair to do their work. Splitting talkative kids up at the table.
I have tried putting kids out in the corridor on a chair but that lead to them standing on the chair to look over the frosted glass which made the whole class crazy.

The word crazy is a another thing that is special about Korea. Pabu - in Korean is crazy and if you say that some one is crazy that is a big insult. This Means I have to be a bit careful with what I say. I have taken to using the word 'Loco' instead. I have slipped a couple of times with telling the kids to "Shut up!" That is a big no-no. I know that when I was at school a teacher would never say that because it was basically swearing. But honestly some of the boys I teach must have mouths powered by eveready batteries. They make me lose it sometimes so it just slips out.

I have had some phone teaching this week. The phone teaching is a bit of an ass really. We are expected every month to call each child and spend 4 minutes going over stuff from class. It takes quite a bit of organisation with 70-80 kids to call. Wrong phone numbers - arranging times to call and having to do it outside of office hours so it cuts into your down time. If I was able to choose a contract - or if I choose a contract in the future I will make sure that there is no phone teaching. The phone teaching will end I hope by Wednesday next week.

We're going into Seoul this afternoon. I am going to use my Yongsan expertise and help Kelly negotiate buying a digital camera. I really like the electronics market so it will be quite fun. Clare will spend some time in the English bookstore, although she has been chewing her way merrily through the books that were left behind by the predecessor from my apartment

I decided not to go to soccer this week. I am excited at the prospect of playing but I couldn't contemplate a whole day in Seoul. I would have had to leave Uijongbu at about 9am and then have a 2 hour practice. I would have to spend the whole day there because we have arranged a dinner show tonight in Seoul. I hope that next week I will go and I might be able to drag one of the other foreign teachers (Rachel) with me.

The dinner show tonight should be quite fun. We will be eating a Bhuddist meal - so it will be a little different from the usual Korean food. The show is a traditional Korean dance. I'll make sure that I take the camer and take some shots for you.

Tomorrow, I have no plans in particular. I really need to ask someone about getting a calling card so I can call home. The calling rates from the home phone's here are awful. Clare made a call to her mum in the first week for 20 minutes and it cost her about NZ$1 per minute!

So look out for my Dinner Show blog. I am trying to encourage Clare to write on here cos I think that would be cool.

Arriving in Uijongbu

We arrived in Uijongbu on the 15th February, 2006 at about 4am. It was freezing dark and we were really glad on insisting for a driver to deliver us from Incheon airport to Uijongbu. It all felt very foreign. We almost got run over by a bus doing 70km past the entrance of the airport as we lugged our cumbersome suitcases to the taxi.

The drive to Uijongbu was really misty- we weren't sure if it was morning fog or pollution (in hindsight it was probably dust). Our driver weaved his way across motorway lanes in low visibility at sometimes terrifying speed. He didn't speak much English, although he did ask "You from Canada?" which we now know is standard taxi driver conversation.

We soon realised that the way the taxi driver was driving was not unique. Everyone in Korea does it. Especially buses! Little or no indicating and even going through red lights. Although, there is some kind of rule because people stop sometimes. You would have to be brave to try and drive in this country.

Clare and I were pretty tired from flying when we arrived in Uijongbu. We were glad to be met by English speaking Vince - the Foreign Teacher Manager. He was up at 6am to show us the apartment.

Boy the apartment was a surprise! We carried our overweight suitcases up to the second floor and were shown into a little room. It was bare except for a closet and the kitchenette.

We rolled our suitcases into it - they seemed to take up a lot of the space and all I could say was "Wow!?" Clare and I shot each other a look and I know she and I were thinking - "What have we got into?"

I saw a door on the right side of the room and thought - "Oh, this must be where my room is." Opened the door and there instead was the bathroom.

Vince then explained that Clare and I would be sharing this space for a few weeks before another teacher left. I'm sure he could tell that we were a bit surprised about this and were also a little distressed at the lack of furnishings. So he quickly made arrangements with the school for a bed to be delivered that day and he even raided his own kitchen for supplies including a kettle and toaster so that we could have something to eat for breakfast. We were so glad to have toast and coffee. I made a bed up on the floor out of the bedding they had supplied and relaxed for a little while.


The photo here is was taken about a week after we arrived. Clare is sitting on her bed. The TV is on the floor because we didn't get a table until about 3 weeks after we arrived. My bedding is in the huge plastic bag - thank goodness for Rachel lending me a mattress though otherwise I would have been sleeping on the floor!

The door on the right is the toilet shower - not bath shower - toilet shower! You have to put the seat down when you shower or someone will have a wet bum.

Out the right door is a storage area/washing machine area. I am taking this photo standing at the far wall of the apartment next to the door.

My suitcase was my dresser up until last week. I had never been so glad to unpack my things!

Things are much better now. More civilised as mum would say. We have an apartment each. Clare's is now the living area and mine is the sleeping/dressing area. A teacher who left gave us a whole lot of furniture and a few decorative items. So now we have mood lighting in the living area - put up a string of lights around the edge of the ceiling so that we can relax and watch movies or whatever.

Just need a few more things to put on the walls to make it perfect! The walls in everyone's apartment are pretty gross because dust sticks to them.

So that's how we got into our new living areas in Uijongbu.

Another pic of Sangwongsa

This is another picture of a temple we visited from Jinbu.
Temple at Sawongsa

Jinbu-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do

Clare, Julia, Kelly and I travelled to Odaesan National Park during the weekend of the 11th and 12th of March.

I was really impressed with the sound of a 9 story stone pagoda at Woljeongsa temple. I also wanted to see what a Korean National Park was like so we made plans to go there.

It was a problem just getting to the right bus station. I will not trust the bilingual tourist line which told me the wrong station! We travelled on several subway trains - at one stage in the wrong direction- and were sent away to a different bus station because the bus didn't go from there which meant a further two train rides. Once we to the bus station we got our tickets pretty quickly and were on our way.

I have written previously about Korean driving - but I have to mention it again. The bus drivers are crazy! We hurtled along the motorways out of Seoul and into the next province Gangwon-do. We seemed to be racing other buses at some stages. If you like theme park rides then you will be at home on a Korean Bus service as you are jostled in every direction and your luggage flies about.

We arrived in Pyeongchang-gun - the subprovince of Gangwon in the town of Jinbu. It was a cold and empty town being the off season but it felt quite refreshing to be able to walk on the road and not feel as though you would get run over. The air was really dirty as Korea was covered in the yellow dust that comes from a desert in China. All of us felt thirsty and like we were getting sick because of the dust.

Pyeongchang was a contender for the 2010 Winter Olympics so there were a few signs around promoting the area. The area is pretty underdeveloped so it isn't surprising that it wasn't chosen. Interestingly enough the area is at about 700 metres above sea level which is the ideal elevations for humans to live. I wonder if that is why the Buddhists set up a decent camp there?

Our first mission in Jinbu was to find accommodation so that we could travel light to the park. We managed to get lucky with a motel which only charged $US20 per room. It wasn't the Ritz but they gave us tooth brushes and towel so that was good enough for me.

The first temple I wanted to go to was Woljeongsa - I really wanted to see my 9 story Pagoda! The bus took us from the tourist office to Odaesan National Park and it was a short stop from the drop of to the temples.

We were immediately struck with the vivid red and green combination that the temples were painted in. Everything so beautifully crafted and every beam or tile was either painted or cast in an intricate design.

I wish that we had someone to tell us a little more beind the paintings on each building. I am sure like Maraes there will be significance to it all.

We wandered into the courtyard with maybe 6 buildings surrounding it and I kept looking for my 9 story building.

Clare and Kelly found the Pagoda - which dates back to 645AD. Here is a picture of it. I was a little mislead in that it is 9 stones- not nine stories! The upper stones are not the originals as there have been many conflicts so that they have been ruined. The stones underground are the oldest. Pretty cool that they have been there for so long. Certainly is older than anything that NZ has!

At Woljeongsa Temple we met a monk at the main temple. She didn't look like the monk in this picture . She was 20 years old and was very unsure of her English but she perservered and managed to teach us how to pray at the temple in front of a massive golden statue in a room surrounded by 1000's of little copies of the statue on 3 sides of the room. She invited us to have rice at the temple for lunch but we didn't have time. We thought that we might make it back the next day but ran out of time.

We had a great meal out at a Galbi restaurant. We ate beef which was a real treat - we paid through the nose for it though. Drank some soju and mekju (Mekju is beer) I think partly to numb the pain of paying for the dinner. Then we went to a Nori Bang and sang for a while. The Nori Bang was themed like Aliens which was a bit creepy but we had a fun time.

Then we wandered the streets f Jinbu trying to find a Sauna at 11:00pm. Being a small town no one was open but we must have woken up about 5 Motel owners just to see if they were open.

Sauna's are a big thing with the foreign teachers. I don't know if it the crappy hot water in the apartments or the dry environment but a lot of them go. I haven't been yet - it will require a little courage as you have to go nude. Even the towels they provide are not meant to hide anything -they are the size of hand towels.

This photo was taken at Sangwonsa Temple. The steps are huge and it was good exercise going up them. Half way up looking down is Julia and then Kelly is below her looking away.

It was absolutely freezing there. The wind was blowing and we were not really equipped to manage the cold. The sky was very clear compared to the day before and the hills and temple roof tops looked awesome against such a blue sky.

We spent a little time looking around the temples and then retreated to a tea shop where we had strawberry mountain tea. It was warm and sweet and we really enjoyed our time sitting inside in some sunlight.

Because of the freezing conditions we decided to cancel the visit to the botanical gardens. It was just as well as we had an hour long wait for the bus! The park officers took pity on Clare and I standing out in the freezing cold and invited us into their tiny office. We were surrounded by 5 Korean guys who didn't speak very much English. One of them had spent time tramping in New Zealand but that was about the extent of our conversation. I did get to feed some tiny little birds peanuts by hand. Overall, I was a bit disappointed with the lack of wild life, but I am sure Iif I return to a park in Spring or Summer I would see more. Mountain Leopards, Wolves, Foxes, Musk Deer and River Otters are either extinct or seriously endangered. Therefore much of the large wild life you would hardly ever see. Apparently there are frogs, snakes and rabbits in the area - or at least crossings as indicated by the road signs!

Eventually the bus back to Jinbu turned up. We were so glad it had arrived that we all ran for it. I don't remember ever being so cold where the wind blows right through your trousers and takes all your warmth away.

We got back to Jinbu about an hour later. Half of which was a very bumpy ride. We only had time then to pick up our stuff and send a quick e-mail at the PC Bang before the bus headed back to Seoul.

In total it took us 5 hours to get back to Uijongbu. The National Park was so peaceful compared to the city and I was really glad that we had visited it. It was nice to get away before our first big week of teaching and I hope that we will have plenty more trips to break up our working year.

March 2006

Hi everyone!

Welcome to my blog. I will try and write some interesting things in here. Although I mainly intend to use it for photo's of where I have been etc.

This is my test page.

Here is a photo is of the school where Clare and I work. Yep, that's it. One floor with 10 classrooms. This school has 8 foreign teachers and we all teach kindergarten and elementary classes.

The school is called a Hagwon - like a school outside the regular school which specialise in subjects like math and language.

There are two other ECC Hagwon's in the city of Uijongbu and probably a whole host more English teaching Hagwons.