Raining and Dancing...

It is raining. Not sure how much of this has been reported on international news, but the rain has been very bad here. Several people have drowned in different parts of the country, though we seem to be pretty safe here in Mokpo. It has been raining for about a week now and is not set to stop until the weekend according to BBC News (my sanity in a world of Korean TV). The weather is good and bad for me - good because the cockroaches seem to have found somewhere else to go for a change, but bad because the mould on my walls (and therefore anything that touches my walls such as my bed and clothes) is getting worse. On the bright side - it has turned red so adds a touch of the Christmas spirit to an otherwise very dull summer month. (The boss is coming to look at it later so I will keep you posted on that one).

Last week was very tiring. My co-teacher was on vacation for a week and so me and the Korean teacher had to cover his classes. Turned out not too bad as there weren't many clashes of timetable (there were only two classes on at the same time so I spent a lot of that 45 minutes running between two classrooms) but it did mean that I had to work the full 30 hours that I am contracted to do for the first time since I got here. Now I used to work much more than 30 hours a week in various previous incarnations but nothing is as exhausting as spending that amount of time locked in rooms with kids - some of whom were new to me, and we had to go through the whole thing about me not being able to speak Korean all over again - the babies just can't understand that concept - and why should they? - so they are particularly difficult. I am forever impressed at how little the kids take advantage of my not being able to understand them. But last week there was a new boy who I suspected of saying bad stuff (simply by the reaction of his classmates) and I wasn't really able to handle the situation as well as I wanted to.

It was the end of the week and I was far too tired to think of anything inventive to occupy the boys. Have decided that the teenage girls are my strength and the boys are my weakness. I was pretty upset by this kid's attitude and will have to work on it this week. Fortunately my adult students took me out on Friday night and gave me a night of compliments so that was great!
I am still trying to adjust to getting up three hours earlier than usual and teaching for two hours longer. Obviously one of the best ways to do this is to go drinking all night on Saturday night and not get to bed until 10.30 the next day - so that is what I did. It was a South African friend of mine's birthday so I was out with a group of South Africans in Gwangju. It was a really cool night and great to meet some new faces from other parts of the world. And a great moment in my life when an African man told me that I had a great sense of rhythm. I think that he was taking the piss but I will take the compliment at face value for today. After drinking and dancing we went for food until the restaurant pointed out that they were shutting at 8am. Then it was a cab to the bus station and a bus back to Mokpo - me and Rebecca looking a state in the face of so many other people getting on with their days as we headed to bed. Went out for Korean barbecue last night - something that I must write more about one day for you and then home and bed.

Tim is back this week so I have free time again!
Love, a very damp Helen
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flags

It is a National Holiday in Korea tomorrow. My students tell me that it is Independence Day- to mark Korea's independence from Japanese rule in 1945. As for every holiday since I arrived here back in December 2001. the National flag is flying in bounteous quantities on all the main streets in town. The big difference this time is that I am not eyeing them up as potential adornments for my humble abode. This is purely because I bought one during the World Cup and not because my morals have got the better of me in any way! Having lived through 3 years at university in London, living in various flats and houses which were almost exclusively decorated in stolen street signs and flashing workman’s lights (how do you turn those damn things off anyway?) and drinking out of pint glasses that had made their way into the house from the local pub down the road, Korea is a real test on my non-pilfering willpower.

I have to admit to possessing one Korean bar glass at this present time but the rest of the contents of my place were properly paid for (or taken out of the trash late at night) There is so much stuff on the streets of your average Korean town that would have 'walked' long ago back home- tables, chairs, brooms, flowerpots and, of course, the Korean flags sitting unfettered in their holders placed at a height where the average Korean municipal worker (not famous for their height) can reach without too much strain. But that is certainly one of the things that I love about Korea- the safety on the streets- whether it be for a six foot yucca plant or a lone female at night. And if my nerve should go there are always plenty of taxis to take me home after dark- a far cry from the hour long queue (line) in Dublin city centre.

Asking my Korean students about Independence Day here led onto other things such as comparisons between celebrations here and in the US. In common with pretty much every other Korean celebration Independence Day is a very subdued affair- especially compared to the firework frenzy in America. Usually a day is marked by a visit to the grandparents- either in their homes or in the grave plots in the mountains. The World Cup was the first time that I had seen mass National celebrations here. And then my student asked me a tricky question- 'Do you have Independence Day in England?' and 'why not?' I explained that it had been a very long time since England was ever part of any Empire but the British. Then we moved onto easier questions about whether or not I had ever met the Royal Family and how handsome Prince William is (makes a change from discussing the aesthetic qualities of English football stars- 'Beckham very handsome!' and 'Owen very handsome' somehow the conversation never got boring!)

While England and Korea are very different in many ways there is one way in which they are the same- the kids are full of questions. The big difference here is that they have to learn a foreign language to get some of the answers. But more on that another time!
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Whatever happened to Helen!

hello all,

I haven't forgotten you all I promise. Just that I haven't found myself with more than a few minutes to spare on the Internet recently. That is not to say that I have been exceptionally busy or anything - just that it is soooo hot when I get back to my house that I tend to get out of my sweaty clothes and into clean PJs asap and that is me in the house from there on in really. But I have been a-visiting again. I have been to Suncheon twice - the first weekend was a fantastic beer filled frolic (I would tell you more but all of the stories are very much of a 'you had to be there' nature and I wouldn't want to waste my time sitting here sniggering over the PC while reliving memories that wouldn't even bring a smile to your collective face), and the second time I was just breaking a six hour journey to Pusan by getting drunk with some friends on the way.

My summer vacation has been and gone now: all three days of it. And I had to fight for the third one of those. That is a little unfair as I did have the two weekend days as well. So a group of us got together and decided to go to Pusan for the long weekend. Didn't realise that another group had had the same idea - a group of around 40 million other people. PUSAN WAS CROWDED. I can't put it any plainer than that. I was aware of rumours of the beach being standing room only during the summer but I had never seen anything like this. Let's start with the accommodation.

The prices were up from the usual 30,000 won a night to a vastly overflated 150,000 won for the night and there was scant little of that available. If I had known then I would have packed according to what others were doing - that is sleeping on the beach mainly. There must have been more people there than in the motels. Because the first lot of our group got there on Thursday night we were able to get two rooms for the duration - though the woman wanted to give one of them away for the Saturday night! We managed to hang onto them both though.
The first night that we arrived was spent walking around all kinds of places trying to find us an ajumma with rooms for us and avoiding Bangladeshi men offering us money for sex and trying to take photos of us - more on that later. Once we had somewhere it was time to eat and onto one of the true delights of Pusan - large American chain restaurants! Well, you are supposed to eat different food when on holiday so we forwent the usual Bi Bim Bab (rice with assorted veggies and one of my fav dishes here) to indulge in totally chopstickless food in the likes of TGI Fridays, Outback Steakhouse and Bennigans with a sneaky Maccas when pissed. The food was amazing and I would heartily recommend Bennigans for the best service on Haeundae Beach (which was where we were staying).

Other than food there was a lot of fighting our way into the water only to be hit with a large amount of large inflatable driven recklessly by small unaccompanied kids and again avoiding the Bangladeshi paparazzi on the shore. I began to get really quick at spotting men sidling over like crabs while their mate stood in the background fumbling with his camera. What they want these photos for I have no idea - ('And this is another one of some girls I never spoke to and who told me to sod off shortly after this shot was taken when she noticed the camera!') Also a lot of beer drunk on the beach into the wee small hours and much sneaking into posh hotels on the beachfront to use their toilets. We all bought cool hippy clothes (for about ten times the price we would have paid in Thailand but cheap when you take into account the fact that we didn't have to fly anywhere!) and I got totally carried away and got a toe ring and henna tattoo as well. Ah well, you only get one summer vacation - or you do in Korea anyway!

I have to teach now so will continue this another time!
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