Eels, seaweed and a long week for the Koreans

Sitting in Praha Bar last night, I looked across the road and found myself staring at a tank full or eels. And next to them, was a tank full of fish. And next to them, was another tank full of a different type of fish. On the side of the road with a large green net resting on top of the tanks, and the fish eagerly awaiting their next journey.... to a plate. Hmmmm. Fresh.

The funeral of the ex-president of South Korea, Mr Roh, took place today. He was moved from his home town near Busan (in the south) up to Seoul where there was a ceremony and then his cremation. The whole thing was shown live, including his coffin going into the furnace. All very detailed and i'm suprised they showed everything. Everyone was very sad today and even a few tears shed. Many not convinced that is was suicide. I was told that he is the first president of South Korea to have been cremated and it seems to be a pretty big thing that he was not buried. Something to do with the fact that he was now just a working man, not a president.

On a lighter note, watched Terminator Salvation tonight - action packed!! Took me a while to get into, but when I did... Oooh it was good. Although did notice 2 things - the 1st was the spelling of the word "judgement" in the opening lines. Checked that out as it was spelt "judgment" and of course, that is the 'American English' spelling of the word. The second, was on bit where "Connor's" boot gets taken off in a fight with a machine before he gets to a helicopter. They then show him on the other side of the helicopter with both boots on a few seconds later. Now how on earth did he manage to secretly pop across, pick up his shoe, put it on again and nobody notice it?!

M and Jo passing time before the movie tonight!

Had my first mosquito bit last night. And have spotted a few more flying about. Killed two, had one bite so it's 1-o to Helen!

LBT at the gym tonight and everyone (only 5 in class today) was in fits laughing when we were doing the stretching. We were paired up and had to sit opposite one another with toes touching. And grab each others hands. This made for great entertainment when all the Koreans can touch their toes plus a bit more, and leggy Helen can barely get down past her knees!!! Then having to push against each others feet facing one another and puts legs up in the air - again, handy if you've got similar length legs to push off one another, so I had to move back far enough so that our feet touched! Instead of forming a 45 degree angle it was more like a 90degree angle with one side much longer that the other :) So, all giggling because it was little and large :) It was funny at the time ;)

2 kids were extremely naughty today. So had to give them a MAJOR telling off. One of them cried 3 times. Oh well, hopefully he'll learn but I reckon he'll have forgotten the whole thing by Monday.

Off to Seoul in the morning. Whoop whoop! And Jo has lent me her camera so will be able to take some piccies :)

Interesting bits and bobs

Am sure I will keep updating this!

• U-turns in the middle of the road are legal
• Blacked out windows in most cars
• Washing hung out to dry on the sidewalk
• Women covering their faces completely and wearing huge hats to all you can vaguely see is their eyes
• Mobiles ringing all the time and picked up mid conversation or in a meeting
• Sat navs turned on in cars as soon as the engine is turned on

These bikes are made for foreigners!

Ha ha! Ok, so Jo and I went to a spinning class this evening. They've just got some new bikes in so this was the first time they had been used. We spent quite a while adjusting the seat, handlebars etc... and then got going. I've always been a bit wary about spinning due to silly pains in my knees, but they were fine throughout! The flashing lights were going, dance music pumping and the instructor really going for it! He got us all shouting "huuh" at different parts of the music :) We might as well have been in a disco!!

So again, there was a lot of giggling going on in the class and before we started it was a mixture of giggling and commenting. I found out why later! All the seats on the bikes are TOO TALL for the Korean women lol!!! They said that the bikes were made for foreigners as they couldn't reach the pedals properly, even at the lowest height!! ha ha! So there I am putting the bike seat up proving their point! The instructor said that they are going to saw all the seats tomorrow so that they are the right height for the class. How funny is that?!

This morning I picked up my health check stuff from the hospital - all good and she apologised for messing up. Went to immigration and it will now take a week to get my Alien card.. Another week to wait to get my own phone, bank account etc but nothing can be done about that.

Was told that my classes for the day were cancelled (these are the classes in the different province at the school I don't particularly like) so that made my day. Found out later on when Mr Park explained to Jo, that the director of that school is going to close it down as there aren't enough students... So, no classes there from now on. Puts a smile on my face but I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact I won't work there on Saturdays, and that is when they get more students in... Hmmmm.

I was asked to help out at another class today so did end up working. Not a bad afternoon at all.

Monday is the day from hell.

Monday is officially the day from hell. Morning classes with the 3-6yr olds who have a concentration span as short as a goldfish's memory, and 2 classes who are fired up with who knows what and possibly all have a rocket up their asses which has exploded. Bloody hell, who knew a 7yr old could scream so loudly, ball their eyes out and 2 seconds later sulk and physically not move. And then go back to screaming again. We couldn't get her on the bus, she had her head down, sobbing so one of the teachers had to give her a talking too as the soft touch got none of us anywhere.. And two boys... Oh, I won't get started on them.

Director back from his restaurant opening in Seoul. He asked me how I was finding the living situation. I told him exactly what I thought. I can't buy my own food because the fridge and cupboards are stuffed, whenever I try and cook my own thing and the housekeeper is there, she won't let me. I have to eat when she's ready to eat. I don't appreciate people walking in out of my room whenever they please, especially not first thing in the morning and I am trying to sleep, and don't particularly want to start locking my room in a place i'm supposed to call home for a year. I hate smoking and smoking in a closed space, ESPECIALLY the bathrooom, its pretty gross. There is a balcony - use it. Shower doesn't work and I get woken up by screaming kids every morning. His response.... Ah, but Korean people live with their parents - it's a cultural thing... hence why not a single other person I know is living with a family?!!!! Huh?!! Cigarettes are only smoked because they get headaches (still does not change the fact that there is smoke everywhere!), and I don't have to pay for food.. Fine, but I quite like cooking and choosing what I eat and I really don't mind paying for it!!! Of course it has its ups, but unfortunately the idea of having any privacy just is not understood. Lots of thinking to do about how to get around this.

.....

Hmmmm, I wrote most of that earlier when I was in a really foul mood. But i've just got back from badminton so feeling a LOT better. I went with Mrs Chae (the mother - I found out what her name is!!) and she dropped me off with a friend and the two of us went together. Walked in and had ALL eyes on me. People stopped playing for a bit to eye me out then thankfully carried on! Don't think they are used to foreigners at their club! They are pretty serious about their badminton. Most of them are in their late 30s and 40s and like Mrs Chae, play every day... So, felt a litte nervous about it but got stuck in nonetheless! Had a warm up for about 15mins with the woman I was with and then a bloke (probably late 40s) came and gave me a few pointers on my smash and we rallied for 45mins. I haven't been so out of breath in AGES!!! Lol! It was brilliant! It's all done on half court to fit everyone in (6 courts, 4 people on each) and then more waiting on the side to play. Had a much needed break and had an attempted chit chat with Mrs Chae (she had turned up by then) and her friend. The man I was playing with is the club captain so I felt a lot better about the fact I was exhausted and he looked like he hadn't played for 5mins!! Then played for another half hour before calling it a day.

Mrs Chae had disappeared by the time I had finished but her friend dropped me off at her mother's house. So met the kids grandparents and they are all a really lovely family. Her son is a bit mental though!! Mrs Chae and I really get on which is nice - that is one of the ups about living with her :)

What a weekend

Saturday

Had a good long lie in on Saturday morning and was eventually forced to get up for the workshop at the gym at 1pm. Went along for that to find that the bit I wanted to go to didn't actually start until 2:30pm, so made my way to the nearest restaurant (which happened to be Chinese) and proceeded to try and order. The menu was of course, all in Korean apart from the headings, so I picked the 2nd one down on the "Chicken" heading, crossed my fingers and hoped it was good!! While waiting for my food the fire alarm went off! Loud! Everyone had a peek round the corner to find out what was going on, decided it was nothing serious so went back to what was more important - FOOD! Mine was really tasty!!! No idea what it was, but at least I know where it is on the menu :)

Didn't go to the workshop and started to walk home. Bumped into two girls I had met on Wednesday (teachers) and went for a drink with them. I was going to go for a juice, and one of them said 'Don't have the tomato juice' it tastes awful.. She said it tasted like you were literally biting into a tomato. I thought, well that doesn't sound too bad! So, I went for it! And oh my, it was disgusting. I think they probably freeze tomatoes, and then blend loads of them up and put it in front of you. Ugh. It was pink and looked like a smoothie - and yes, it tasted as if you were biting into a tomato. Couldn't drink it. So, ordered a cappucino (thought i'd go with a safe option) and it was cold and could have been passed off as anything coffeeish which had been put in the fridge. In the meantime, the tomato juice had started to separate and it was so thick that you physically had to push a straw through it in order for it to touch the bottom. Pretty gross!!

.....

Met up with Jo in the evening and she took me to Eunpha park - it's a lake with a running track round it and long pedestrianised bridge across it. BEAUTIFUL at night - it's all lit up and there is a music/water display on as well - very cool. When I get round to taking some pictures will put them up. Then on to her friend's house where we had a beer, watched CSI and painted each toenail a different colour :) Yellow, pink, green, orange and another pink! All luminous :)

Off to "downtown". This is renowned for being a US military hot spot. Am always a bit wary of places like this and was SHOCKED to see so many black and white people all speaking English in one place. Had a great time - lots of dancing and playing pool, but can see why it's not the most popular place for teachers to go out. All a bit 'showy' but good experience nevertheless.

Sunday

Again, another nice long lie in. Wandered down the road for a BBQ with a bunch of teachers. Stopped off at the butchers to get some meat - I got a kilo instead of the 100g I had asked for, but it was all eaten and very very tasty! We had a quiz too. About 6 teams with 5/6 people per team. There was a lot of rivalry after the quiz they had had 2 weeks ago ;) Unfortunately, my team came last :( But, only by one point!! It was very close throughout apart from the winners who were miles ahead. There's a lot of banter between the South Africans, New Zealanders and the English - very funny! The Americans and Canadians are a bit quieter. I had my cricket ball with me so we went down to a school to play a game (again, the South African, New Zealand and England banter!). A few of us went down early and were expecting the others to bring a bat, but they thought we had a bat so we ended up with none!! We found a football instead and played for 1.5hrs. Brilliant!! Some Korean kids joined us and were amazing. Although, most of us were wearing flip flops and the pitch is made of sand and little stones - feet are VERY sore... One of the kids (who we nicknamed Kaka) gave me a baseball as a present at the end of the game. Not sure why but it will be used! :) Found out the the two New Zealanders only live a 10min walk away. Happy about having people a little closer and they're both a good laugh.

Back home and sat down with the mother (STILL don't know her name) and her friends (there was about 4 other mums, all their kids and one husband) and we ate some food, had a taste of Korean wine, and now.... I am pooped!!

Earlier start at school in the morning, and definitely badminton in the evening.

11pm on a Friday?!

Started off my day with the usual kimchi and rice and headed off to the hospital to collect the results from my check up. And as can generally be predicted, they weren't ready (the woman had forgotten when she had asked us to come in) so we patiently sat while they were done... Only to find that not only had she forgotten we were coming, 'someone' had forgotten to do one of the main tests that is required for a foreign teacher to teach here. Yup, the drugs test. So, off I go to give them more money (even though THEY c*ocked up) and had the joy of pissing into a cup again. This means that I still cannot sort out a bank account or a permanent phone line (you need an Alien card to get a phone here) until next week. Great.

A good day with the kids today. Snacks, mini party and a movie with one class and icecream with other (Jo's idea for them being so good!). And off to the gym to work it all off :) Had all my body stats done so they can see just how fat/thin I am so can redo it in a few months to see i'm doing. Apparently I need to drink more water, eat more meat and turn some of my fat into muscle - but am in the normal range so that's fine! We did a LBT class then some cardio - i don't think i'll ever stop giggling with the instructor trying to explain directions to me in Korean! Need to learn some more of the language!!

Then off to the cinema (gym, cinema and restaurants all in one building - score!). Was a bit shocked to get a phone call from the director of one of the 4 schools i'm teaching at (the one which is a half hour drive away). A phone call at 11pm on a Friday evening... To 'ask' me about teaching tomorrow at 1pm.... ARGGGGHHH!! The point just does not seem to getting across! Doesn't suprise me with messages being passed between so many people. I said NO, I AM NOT WORKING ON SATURDAYS and then she says i've put her in an uncomfortable position because there are kids coming in expecting me to teach them. Bollocks to that! Do it once and will never see the end of it! She also had the nerve to ask me what I was doing that I couldn't come in tomorrow... Hmph! So, will see what she has to say to Mr Park...

Anyhow! Angels and Demons - thoroughly enjoyed it! Lots of twists and turns... but won't ruin it for anyone else who hasn't seen it yet ;)

Kimchi and yoga = perfect hangover cure

Last night I met up with about 15 other English teachers in Gunsan - and it was a long one!! A really nice group of people from South Africa, Canada and the UK. Good to have some chit chat but one thing I miss from the UK is the smoking ban. Everyone smokes indoors and it's back the stale clothes and hair smell after a night out. Yuk. I found out why people smoke in the bathroom too - it's not seen to be an appropriate thing (or something like that) to do in public. Hmmm.....

I now know the walk into town takes 45min. So, think a taxi might be the way forward at night and seeing as it only costs about 4,000 won (approx £2) and it's safer than walking, I think it's worth it!

Felt in a sorry state this morning but luckily no teaching until 1pm and a bowl and rice and kimchi sorted me out (well mostly!). Some good classes today but there is one class who both Jo and I seem to have problems with - it's been 4 days and already I dread teaching them! The rest are pretty cool though.

Jo (a girl I work with) and I then went to the gym tonight. Whoop whoop!! Back to doing some exercise!! It's a women's only gym and the facilities are brilliant (no swimming pool though). I have got to get used to strutting my stuff in the changing rooms as there is no hiding anything! Nice to have a decent shower as the one in the flat is awful. It also has a sauna and steam room. I think i'm going to like this!! Started off with an hour of yoga (there was a lot of giggling going on in here from me and Jo - my legs are about double the length of anyone elses!) and then an hour and a half doing some cardio and weights. I feel a lot more like me again already!

So that's it!! Home at 11:15pm and a morning of hospitals, immigration and paperwork to look forward to. Joy.

The longest day so far

It started with an early start and a good laze about on the balcony in the sunshine listening to what is going on in the world. And then...

Mr Park: ok, first we go to the hospital. (One way to prep me for what I was about to have done). I have NEVER.. EVER had such a thorough check up in my life. Started with the usual form filling (not that I could read it) followed by:

-eye sight test
-blood pressure
-body weight
-height
-hearing test
-urine sample
-blood sample
THEN TO RADIOLOGY?!!!!!
-breast scan
-dentist

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... And all of this was done in just over an hour. Not bad I would say! So far so good, now to wait for the final 3 results to come through on Friday.

After this was the trip to immigration (passed a man on his motorbike in a superman outfit!) - to pick up a form for my Alien registration. The sitting about will happen on Friday - whoopie!! Then back to the school to have a discussion with the owner of another school about my teaching hours there. Now I say discussion, but it was the usual me sit in the room while the two of them talk about me and what I will be doing. I on the other hand don't know what is being said and thus have no say. Isn't that fun. This is the 3rd school I will be teaching at... And it is also half an hours drive away. Off I go to teach again! No idea of number of students, age, level or anything.

Had an interesting chat with Carol (the owner of this school) about some teaching stuff. This is when I was told about a child that I would be teaching in the Saturday class. THE SATURDAY CLASS?!!!!! NO WAY!! This is when I put my foot down and say nope, this you will not tell me to do.

Apart from that , I again was asked about my relationship status. More explaining about my being a singleton. So I asked Carol about hers - she is 49yrs old (48 to you and me), never been married and has no children. A few years back she decided to devote herself to God and made a comparison of herself to a nun. She has been on her own since and is very happy with it. I guess being a kindergarten teacher sort of fills in a gap of not having her own kids. And she loves them to bits. She also has polio and that was another reason behind how she discovered herself and why she was meant to devote her life to God.

Anywho, ended up teaching 3 classes at Carol's. Well, not much teaching but we played lots of board games :) If this is what they want me to do then I am certainly not complaining!!! Although one child was totally not wanting to be there and spent the whole lesson expressionless and keeping his mouth shut.

I think I will have a huge problem teaching at Carol's because she translates EVERYTHING for the kids.. And they then tell her what they want to say in Korean and she tells me in English - HOW DOES SHE EXPECT THEM TO LEARN?! I might have to ask her to not be there next week....

Ok, so back to Gunsan for the end of the day... Or maybe not... Off to the FOURTH school I will be teaching at?! Man, too much! Had another "discussion" with the owner there and I will be teaching 5hrs straight for two afternoons a week with no break. Great. The plus with this is it is in the bit of town where most the foreigners live and with all the bars and restaurants so at least it will be easier for me to have a bit of social life seeing as I don't finish work until 7:30pm at the earliest. There is also a martial arts class (not sure which type) upstairs in the building so may be joining that in the near future.

Then, to sort out my phone and off to dinner (Italian! and they had heated toilet seats hee hee hee!) to discuss my schedule. Hmmm, it's not too bad!!! And yes, there are no Saturdays :)

Monday I work from 10am - 8pm. Tues I only work for 3.5 hours, Wed from 2:25 to 7:30, and Thursday is from 2-8ish. So... apart from the ridiculous amount of travelling around, I think I could handle this!!! Mornings free for some phys in the park and still time in the evenings if I fancy a beer :) And I have the option of doing extra lessons for some more money if I fancy it too.

Oh, and apparently there IS lots of scuba diving and I am looking forward to a few drinks with some other English teachers tomorrow night.

Can't wait to get to sleep.

First day at school(s)

I am home and feeling quite tired after my first day teaching. I was expecting a few suprises, but not this many...

Got ready for work and it was strange to put socks on, but no shoes.... As I live in the same building I work in, there is no need for me to go outside, so no need to put on any shoes! Hee hee!

As I waited to meet the rest of the teaching staff, I stood in the corridor and had little 5 year olds looking at me, screaming and running away giggling to hide before coming back and doing this repeatedly!! :) Then it was the "hello teacher" phrase and the "I am fine thank you" phrase to follow. The rest of the staff are all lovely - all women too. My first class was the 3yr olds followed by 2 4yr old classes then a 5yr and 6yr old classes. Classes are only 20min long but very energetic for that 2omins! Concentration span is extremely short as you can imagine. Remembered a few nursery rhymes like "incy wincy spider", "the wheels on the bus", and "head, shoulders knees and toes" :) Brings back a few memories. Also had kids grabbing my legs and not letting go - so strange to have so much physical contact with children after living with ridiculous barriers between adults and children in the UK. It's good to be able to give a child a hug or pat on the back and it be a common and natural thing to do rather than being some type of abuse.

Then an 1.5hr long break. At this point I was told that I had two more classes in this school before going to another school to teach.. Uh... ANOTHER SCHOOL?! I didn't see this in my contract. But hey, i'll go along with it. This school is only a 5min walk away so no biggy. Classes are 40min long and today I had 3 classes and then we all came back for dinner -this is me thinking that the day ends here (as it says 6pm in the contract). But no, another class till 7pm.. Ok... At the end of this class, I was then told that I will be teaching a girl on her own from 7:10-7:50pm?!!! But not today - from next week. Again.. uh...?!!!! So, 2hrs over the time I was supposed to be working - and this is only day one?!! Apparently I am teaching at another school tomorrow and there is one more which is driving distance away.. And kids range between 3 and 12. Hmmm, will see how this goes.

In general, the teaching will go ok but when I was difficult today when I was expected to teach 4omin lessons to students at different levels of English, without any preparation time or teaching materials. I am not the most imaginative person about so it wasn't easy!!! I should (fingers crossed) get my schedule tomorrow but, I was told i'd get that today so hopes aren't high.

One thing I found REALLY weird, was I was asked to give all the students in one of my classes an "American name" - and this was the first thing I had to do... You never realise how difficult it is to think up names on the spot, and also without having seen on of their personality.. So, did that but I really hope they don't stick because they are extremely boring. Am going to write a list of names down in my book in case I have to go through this exercise again!

Was told again today that I had a small face :o) And that I was very tall!

New word for today is for "Hornet" - don't know how to spell it but it sounds like "maelport". It is described as a horse bee because it looks a little like a horse :)

Not much else really. Had a really good dinner - seaweed with rice and spicy noodles and kimchi. Yummy.

I'm engaged!!!

What an interesting evening :) The mother (still don't know her name), her friend and her husband, and later a girl who also lives in the flat all sat round the table for dinner. She made me a rice and egg thing slighty different to what everyone else was eating, although can see i'm game to try anything so may not do that next time :) We ate scabber fish and I struggled to separate the fish from the bone with chopsticks so she cut it up for me so I could just pick it up. I'm not a child or an old woman yet and still I need someone to cut up my food for me. Oh dear. Considering I don't particularly like fish, this wasn't too bad - although EXTREMELY salty. With this was of course lots of different types of kimchi - yummy.

After this we had coffee (I would certainly not call it coffee but anyway). The coffee comes in prepared packets with the coffee, milk AND sugar (one way to ruin a good cup) all together. I think I might be in need of some unsugared coffee in the near future.

We also had a beer and the other girl who lives in the flat drinks her beer through a straw. I'm used to seeing that in a boat race but now will become a regular occurance :) And it would get me mega tipsy! With the beer was after dinner snack which consisted of dried squid and what was called mouse fish (the description sounded distinctly like a sting ray but can't find out what it is). I tried it, didn't like it and stopped eating it.

The mother's friend has got twins so we a had a nodding head giggle moment about that when I said I was a twin. After our brief encounter yesterday, I really like the mother :) She's a good laugh and has a great sense of humour. She plays badminton every evening so tomorrow night, I am going to with her and see how my badminton skills fare. I am going to get whipped! She also wants me to give her English lessons - up for doing so and she will also give me a few Korean lessons as well.

I'm getting married!! Ha, well i'm tempted to say so anyway :) (did I scare you there mum?!) hee hee. I have a ring on the 4th finger of my right hand and the automatic reaction is that I am engaged. So, I explain that it's the left hand if you're engaged. And of course the question that follows is, 'so you have a boyfriend?' Uh.. no. And again, more explaining to do there.

- I had no idea that there is such a thing as 'Korean age'. When a child is born, they start the years off at 1. As opposed to being alive for a year and then being 1. So I would be 23 now instead of 22.

- EVERYONE has a fancy mobile phone (including the 7yr old)

- all phones have a Korean-English dictionary. Extremely useful at the moment as when they are trying to explain things to me and can't get the point across with numerous attempts at different words and flailing expressive arms to go with that, it's just typed into the phone and an answer is given. I prefer the flailing arms method myself.

So I learnt a few more words tonight - Kom bei (cheers!), shike (rice juice) and divorce (?!) - the flat mate is divorced. The translation of divorce is to 'resingle'!! I find this hilarious!! I didn't get it at first and they were like resingle resingle (saying it quickly and laughing at the same time) So out came the phone to let me know what they meant.

Now to get an early night in preparation for my first day at school!

I look like a spider!!

This morning, I was awoken at 7am by two children running about after each other screaming. Not impressed. It's a Sunday!!!!!!!! Go outside!

Ha ha! So I've just been bombarded by 5 children and have finally met (rather than just heard) the two kids who live in the flat. So sweet at 1pm! Was given an icecream to eat and then dragged down the stairs to be shown something. What you may ask? Well, they kept pointing at my hair and saying a word (which I could of course not understand). So they took my to a classroom, picked up a spider, pointed it at my hair giggled away! Funny :)

A few interesting points I have learnt so far.

- When accepting something from a person, whether it is drink, food or any object, it is polite to accept it with 2 hands. Always always always.

- You can open a beer bottle with the back of spoon. TRY IT!!! It works brilliantly :)

- You should pour beer for you elders - but I think maybe you pour for the person sitting next to you rather than pouring for yourself... Might have to investigate further!

- Beauty in the eyes of a Korean is a T shaped face. And, flat cheeks are a necessity. At least according to Jo (a girl I work with). Women will get botox in their cheeks to try and achieve this and Jo isn't happy with her face because it is round! One of the first things that was said to me when I arrived was - you have a small face :o) Ha ha! Unfortunately my cheeks are too big. Oh well, can't change that ;)

- most foreigners live in Naun Dong which is, yup, on the opposite side of the city to me.

I am sat here wating for my bed to arrive... Frustrating as I want to have a walkabout... And now there is a crying child next door...

Wet Wet Wet

It has not stopped raining since I landed in Korea and it doesn't show any signs of letting up anytime soon! Could not see a thing on the 3.5hr journey from Seoul to Gunsan due to the miserable weather and steamed up windows, so haven't got a clue what it all looks like - apart from a few outlines of one or two hills!

So, caffe latte in a can from a vending machine (kindly offered to me by the lovely man who met me at the station), being checked for swine flue straight off the flight with some funky small machine that does something to the back of your ear (anyone know what that is?!) and LOTS of blacked out car windows. Didn't see animals on the journey which strikes me as a bit strange - no cows, donkeys, sheep etc equivalent at all. Bazaar.

All has gone well so far. Was met at the bus 'terminal' in Gunsan with a beaming smile from the school director, his wife and two of my colleauges Jo and Susie (who are both really really lovely). Susie is married to an American bloke with a beautiful 3yr old girl. I was taken to the school and this is when I got a little bit of a suprise.. My school is actually where I wil be living. And not on my own either, but with a family with 2 sons. One is 7 and the other s 8. Haven't met anyone apart from the mother and she didn't say very much... So, will be interesting.... Might have to see if I can organise something else because I am quite a way out of town too. On the upside, apparently food is cooked so don't have to do much (if any) shopping - well apart from what I specifically want, there is a cleaner who comes in every day who does the washing up, laundry and supposedly cleaning (there is dust EVERYWHERE), and what gets me most excited, is my bicycle!! Now, it doesn't compare to my old beauty but it's good to have one anyway.

The five of us went on a trip to the shop and the Director decided to buy me a new bed, some storage stuff and most importantly, and adapter!! Bed arrives tomorrow and will get my unpacking done.

Trip down to dinner was next and had a FANTASTIC meal and some beer - I think I have already fallen in love with Korean food :) The director is opening up a restaurant near Seoul in a few weeks so he's invited us to go up for the opening :)

And that's day numero uno. Have hiking with Jo to look forward to and the three of us are planning a trip to the cinema next week. Meet the children (ages 4-9) and the other teachers on Monday. Was told today that I am not to do things out of textbooks, but to improvise and make things fun and active for the kids - whoop whop! Oh, and Jo is also on the hunt for a man so have been tasked with making her take me out clubbing, to find her a man lol!

New blog - now to make sure I use it!

Right, since i'm off for a while, think this will be the easiest way for me to update people on where I am and what I am up to! Well, it's the lazy way - saves all the individual emails (but I will be doing a few of those too am sure) :)

A bit more learning to do - next update soon.