Kezia's Travels

Pride 2007

2007-08-07T05:24:00.001+09:00

What a mind blowing experience. To be in one place with so many people and then that the majority of them were gay! Here is the story of our day at Pride!

It all started on a beautiful morning in Hove. I looked out the window and it felt a bit like kid Christmas. The anticipation of the days events made me wake up early. I took a pic out our back window cos it was so lovely.

The sky was clear and the neighbourhood still sleepy and quiet.

We stoked up with a bit of breaky - smoothie and raisin toast with butter. Slapped on some sunscreen and headed off to the Parade.

The parade runs a little under 3 miles from the water front in Brighton up towards Preston Park. A 63 acre park which was decked out with fair rides and food and merchandise stalls.

http://tourism.brighton.co.uk/attractions/attractiondet.asp?Attraction=19&attractiontype=Parks+%26+Gardens

Getting to the parade was a bit of a mission for us. We tried to catch a bus only to discover that due to the parade they wouldn't be going close enough for us. But, we had our trusty bikes! Lucky. Pedal power and we were at the Viaduct on Preston Street in plenty of time to sip our NZ wine before the first parade participants arrived.

The theme for the parade was "Musicals". We were delighted to see 18 Dorothy's from the Wizard of Oz marching and dancing down the street.

Of course there were the Fire Service and Police Service too. There has to be a fire truck only this time it was trussed up in pastel pink and blue balloons!

According to the Argus, Brightons local newspaper around 120,000 people visited Preston Park where the parade finished. You can see a few thousand people in my pic above making their way up Preston Street.

Once through the gates and past the protesting Christians it was simply a matter of finding a green space to relax on. We were visited by hawkers selling vodka jelly and chocolate treats. Queues for the toilets were insane which forced most of us to go "bush" during our drinking session.

As the sun started to slip away and headaches from the heat increased we retreated to town and the stony shore. This was packed too. The water was almost warm enough to swim in after several days of sunshine.

The lights of Brighton pier were sparkling brighter than usual I think. Making my first big Pride celebration very beautiful.

Music Fest in Gdynia

2007-07-06T01:47:00.000+09:00

Heineken Open'er Festival 2007! Camping with one small down pour to make things interesting. Otherwise it was BBQ's, sunshine and live music. What fun.

The festival was held at an old airfield at Babie Doly.

We caught the train from Gdansk to Gdynia and then bused the rest of the way.

Baby Doly is on the north coast of Poland so we could walk and see the Baltic Sea. I put my feet in it and got ankle ice cream ache! A few silly buggers went swimming in it. I imagine that they were a pickled on vodka.

It was my first true back packing and camping European adventure. I really enjoyed stooging around the streets of Gdansk and making geeky visits to the museum to find out more about the local history. Unfortunately most of the information was in Polish or German so I didn't learn a lot.

Food was really cheap but very nice. We went to a fancy restaurant where we sang along with a pianist who knew heaps of movie theme tunes and show tunes. A real "you hum it and I'll play it" experience. He even played Rufus Wainwright's "Hallelujah" he gave us a round of applause when we sang it.

Wild boar, Pierogi (vege or meat filled dumplings) hot beetroot soup, frosty freeze ice creams about a foot tall (Lody) were all interesting and delicious!

Camping was good. We had a complete set of tent pegs which made things better than my last camping effort in Roxburgh. (Having a set of screwdrivers was ever so helpful!!) Clare and I were the slowest to erect our tent and we managed to choose the spot that got a big puddle right outside our door when it rained.

This gave a nice waterbed effect inside the tent until I found a spade and dug a drain.

We purchased disposable BBQ's and attempted to cook sausages. Polish sausages are very thick and only 1/2 the embers on the BBQ would go at one time despite huffing and puffing to get them going.

It was a focus nevertheless and provided us with some warmth. I did my best to support the festival sponsor. Partly because it became increasingly difficult to smuggle in vodka as they would check bags at the gate.

The music itself was great. The highlight for me was Bjork and Icelandic Brass Band. They really rocked out. With the help of some amazing technology tehy replaced the usual swirly graphics and stuff displayed on the big screens with digital DJ decks and a Reactable which looked a but like a fortune telling device.

So to conclude as if I were a tourism adviser. Go to Gdansk. Cheap sweet people, quality food and drink and lovely scenery.

POLAND - Gdynia and Gdansk

2007-07-06T01:32:00.000+09:00

What a lovely country. Well the small part that I saw of it anyway!

Our main objective when visiting Poland was to buy Zubrowka bison grass flavoured vodka and to see the artists performing at the Heineken Open er Festival.

We succeeded in drinking many kinds of vodka, lots of cheap beer and not only to rock out on the mud covered arena but see some nice historic buildings.

The town that we stayed in was pretty much destroyed thanks to both Axis and Allied invastions. Many of the beautiful buildings and courtyards have been rebuilt.

St Mary's church has been a major project in Gdansk. It has massive and ornate pieces like the organ you can see below and the glass window. Not all the windows have been replaced but there is the odd panel of coloured glass that has survived which is scattered amongst regular coloured glass. It made me wonder what a mess the church must have been.

The streets were cobbled with stairways leading up to the shops on either side. A dog barked out the shutters on the second floor between flower pots.

We talked to a German visitor who said that although the older locals speak German they would not speak to him. Gdansk was actually renamed by the German's to Danzig. I'm not sure when it returned to the original name. This was common all throughout Poland.

Basketball in Dunedin

2007-06-25T01:34:00.000+09:00

We made a trip to Dunedin to catch up with some mates and also got to see Clare's little brother play basketball. Representing his region.

Wanaka tripping continued

2007-06-25T01:02:00.000+09:00

I tried out my camouflage hairdo in the dry grasses of Wanaka.

Clare and her mum Jenny on top of the mount on the Lake Diamond walk. Brilliant sparkling day.

At the other end of the lake we took a walk up Mount Iron which had some lovely views also. Lots of rosehips were out enjoying the heat.

Here are some golfing pros playing at the Wanaka Have a Shot one afternoon.

South Island Travels

2007-06-03T17:24:00.001+09:00

It really was a beautiful contrast to come from super urban South Korea to small town and rural New Zealand. I couldn't keep my eyes off the different landscapes as I travelled through.

This series of pics includes a shot of Clare and her Dad inland from Timaru. It was blowing and cold. It was the quickest photo ever as I didn't want to ask them to pose for long or they would be blown away.

Clare, Tommy (Clare's 2nd brother) and his mate Tim are on the bench at Ruby Island which is situated in Lake Wanaka. We Kayaked out and then took the short walk to the top to enjoy our snacks. It took about 1/2 hour to kayak there. As inexperienced kayakers we felt our arms the next day!

The orchard scene is from Southern Orchard in Roxburgh. It is the largest apple orchard in the Southern Hemisphere! I spent 10 days staying with my mate Ian (in the separate photo with his dog Thor) picking apples.

Matt and Karen's Wedding

2007-06-03T17:13:00.001+09:00

It was a beautiful sunny Hawkes Bay day. Perfect for a garden wedding. Here are some of the really sweet pictures I managed to get from the day.

Some lovely people I saw in NZ

2007-05-30T18:00:00.001+09:00

Here are some of the lovely people that I got to catch up with in NZ. I was actually not very good at taking photo's of all of you!

Top is Raj and Paul at the Wellesly Club in Wellington.

Lyn with Clare in Christchurch where we ate nachos in the sun.

The little dog is training to be a bomb dog while staying with Maree and Jane.

Finally is a pretty picture of The Avon in Christcurch

ECC Gang - minus Dave

2007-05-30T17:49:00.001+09:00

For our last hurrah we went to Sta Serra for lots of italian food and the WINE BAR. In the pic we have Clare, Regm Marie, Sun Mi, Alfie, Kelly (in front) and me!

Below you can see that travelling on the subway is so tiring after eating and drinking!

Favourite Korean Class

2007-05-30T17:44:00.001+09:00

Wellington

2007-03-05T06:35:00.000+09:00

Here I am!

I made it to Wellington, New Zealand in one piece and with all my luggage (well, minus my toothbrush).

It was an entertaining trip. I am glad that I had nothing pressing to do once I got here.

We got out of the apartment in Uijongbu at about 3:30pm. Marie came to bid us farewell again. She was also moving into our nice apartment and inherited all sorts of treasures!?

Bus from Uijongbu to Incheon took a good 2 hours. No fee for excess baggage at check-in. Booyah! All though I did have some nice lotions confiscated due to the whole liquid restriction. Trying to reduce weight in the checked in baggage meant that I took a lot of bottles on with me. The customs officers were quite bemused by my collection.

There was an hour delay taking off from Incheon but we did get personal screens with channels which was a bonus.

We sat next to a very sweet Korean guy who was going to Sydney. It was his first time in a plane and he was very excited to be going to another country. He was going to a 10 month English course so that he could become a "salary man". He told us that he is the only child and so his mother cried a lot at the airport. He also would be away from his girl friend of one year.

I gave him one free English lesson and taught him how to say "gudday mate". I think he thought I was crazy.

There was a spectacular sunrise as we hit the Australian continent. It was a blazing angry orange which softened into full daylight as we approached Sydney. We strained our eyes looking out for the Sydney Opera house. Although we couldn't see it the Sydney coast line is pretty impressive. I told our Korean friend that he would have to go to the beach. First, he will need to learn how to swim!

Our late departure from Incheon meant that I missed my connecting flight to Wellington. Clare was still able to connect to her flight to Christchurch. So I got to spend 9 hours hanging out in Sydney airport. The staff were pretty friendly and they gave me food vouchers. I bought a couple of magazines and wandered in circles in between articles. I had a good opportunity to watch the ballet of vehicles and planes on the tarmac. I have the greatest respect for the drivers who reverse the Boeings on to the runway. If you need some onto help you reverse a trailier then call one of those guys!

I arrived in Wellington at about12:30am. My sister Megan was still waiting patiently for me. Out in to the breezy Wellington Summer evening. Lovely.

2007-02-27T10:11:00.000+09:00

Here are four of my cute Kindy kids.
1st pic - Emilie
2nd - Helen
3rd - Jeff
4th - Dorothy

Brendon hid under the table and then I forgot to get a pic of him! Brat!

Graduation

2007-02-27T10:08:00.000+09:00

Only 2 days left working at ECC! It's a nice relaxed pace as there is break for kindergarten before the start of their new classes.

Last weekend was the kindergarten graduation. Clare's class was involved in this as they were 7 year olds and will be progressing to elementary at ECC this year. Graduation was a big deal. All the kids wore robes and mortar boards which looked pretty cute. Their parents came to a big ceremony which had been practiced for several weeks! Each student gave a little speech and their class gave a celebratory chant. Clare had to say good bye to her kids which added to the emotion of the day. She was especially sad to see her favourite student Kelly leave.

I almost cried saying good bye to Columbus class the Friday before the graduation. We held a little goodbye party where we played games and ate snacks. I've included some pictures of my kids.

Lunar New Year Party at ECC

2007-02-22T22:05:00.001+09:00

Chicken Fighting!

2007-02-22T21:57:00.001+09:00

Counting Down

2007-02-07T14:51:00.000+09:00

No photos to go with this blog. I am simply sharing some thoughts.

I keep staring at the calendar intensely at work watching as each day passes by. I've only got 15 working days to go now. I'm waiting for that sad feeling to come over as I these are the last days that I will spend with my kids. However, there are some classes I will be glad to never see again! On the other hand there are some really sweet ones too.

I am going to reward my favourite class with a pizza party as a good bye to them. Traditionally, (at our school anyway) we just have chip and soda potlucks. They deserve a nice treat beacause they work hard and are really good kids.

The most sad good bye will be the kindy kids. I have spent more time on a day to day basis with them. Also, it became a very small class which has given me an opportunity to get a lot closer to the kids. I have had thoughts about smuggling one or two out in my suitcase! ;)

There is a good bye party planned this month. Not only are Clare and I leaving but Korean Teachers - Judy and Annie are finishing up too. We'll share the party with them and a couple of foreign teachers from another branch of our franchise.

Most likely it will be a big dinner at a galbi restaurant and then on to a Nori Bang (Kareoke) after.

I'll be sure to take a few more pics of my cute kids before I go.

Dinner at Sta Sera in Gangnam

2007-01-28T17:24:00.000+09:00

Yet another Italian restaurant in Korea. This one had a wine buffet which lead to a bit of a hang over the next day. They do really yummy thin crusty pizza's along with all the salad and wine you can drink.

Die Dye Die

2007-01-21T16:44:00.000+09:00

I needed a hair colour change. After a successful dying of Clare's hair we thought that I would be pretty safe to dye mine. Well...we were wrong. First attempt on Thursday night ended up with me having bright yellow (Korean blond) hair! Click the pic to see the colour better.

I braved the kindy classroom with my yellow hair but tried to dye it again at lunch on Friday only to have an orange result. Although it wasn't the colour I would have liked it is growing on me. So I will stick with it for the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I can get it a normal shade by the time I get to Matt and Karen's wedding!

Pretty Lights

2007-01-21T16:38:00.000+09:00

For the X-mas New Year season a lot of businesses put up lights around Myeong-dong. We walked around on a freezing night to appreciate them.

New Zealand Cherries!!!

2007-01-21T16:35:00.000+09:00

Here is Clare happy with her New Zealand cherries. She bought them on special. 280 grams for NZD$10. They were pretty good but they tasted a little jet lagged.

Seoul War Museum

2007-01-21T16:32:00.000+09:00

We visited the War Museum in Seoul a couple of weekends back. The museum houses not only a well laid out history of the 1950's war but it also has sections about the wars defining the occupation of the Korean peninsula from 300-500AD onwards. It was a huge place and so much to read, watch and look at. One of the most enjoyable parts for me was walking around the exterior of the museum and viewing the tanks, planes and other war machinery. Below I am (wo)manning a ship's machine gun. I also got to see a B-52 Super Fortress. It was an excellent experience.

Fireworks in the street!

2007-01-10T15:33:00.000+09:00

Hey everyone. Finally worked out how to put video on my blog! Hurrah! This snippet is after Marie purchased fireworks from a hawker on the street in Insadong. I joined in with the crazy Korean's celebrating New Year by holding fireworks and letting them off. Don't do this at home kids.

The sky was exploding while thousands of people let off roman candles over our heads. The smoke from all the fireworks made you cough and even after we retreated to the subway you could see smoke in the subway tunnel!

Food delicious food

2007-01-10T15:26:00.000+09:00

Mum suggested that I write something about Korean food. It is very delicious and cheap so I'll tell you about a few of my favourite dishes in Korea. The food eat have eaten the most is Samgyupsal or Galbi. This is BBQ pork bacon or marinated meat. Many restaurants specialise in these types of food. You simply sit down at a table with a grill in front of you while your meat cooks to perfection. Pork is the cheapest meat here and it BBQ's really well. On occaision we have splashed out and had beef which is good too.

All Korean restaurants give you side dishes. The primary side is 'kimchi' which is a fermented chilli cabbage. It's really spicy and takes a little getting used to! Other sides may be soy bead products, marinated peanuts, pickled radish, seaweed,eggs (pickled, omlette) etc. There is a huge variety of sides. The side dishes are always served in odd numbers and traditionally the more sides provided the more fancy/formal the meal. So 3 sides is Jo Bloggs dinner while 11 sides would be very fancy.

The BBQ meat is eaten with lettuce, raw garlic (though I prefer to grill it!) and a red bean sauce. We also order mushrooms to BBQ which complement the meal really well.

Delivered food is also easy to get in Korea. Clare and I have spent many a freezing night comfy on our couch eating delivered food. We simply call our local restaurant and they deliver everything as it would be in the restaurant for no extra cost. Once you finish your mean you can put the dirty dishes outside your door and the delivery man takes them away. Brilliant for if you don't like to do dishes!

The dish below is Kimchi Chigae. It is a local dish which is essentially a mix of Kimchi, meat (pork)and tofu. It is very spicy but is very cheap and tasty. As you can see it is served with short grain white rice. Clare doesn't really like this dish. Here is a recipie if you want to make it. Good luck finding kimchi though! http://www.trifood.com/kimchichigae.html
This link is very useful if you want to know about more Korean dishes!

Hmmm, tofu. Thanks to Korea I have a new found appreciation for the soy bean and its goodness.

This is one of Clare's favourite dishes. It's called Don Gas. This is a picture of her half eaten Don Gas set we had delivered. Don Gas is crumbed shallow fried pork fillet. Typically eaten with short grain white rice and specialy BBQ sauce. The set that Clare gets also includes a fruit salad, kimbap (Korean Sushi) Tang Su Mandu (crispy dumpings) Korean style coleslaw (cabbage and mayo) and to top it all off a Udon noodle soup. It is big meal but it goes together very nicely. Sometime when we feel like pigs we get one each!

I haven't learned how to make any of these dishes. I blame it on only having a 2 burner gas hob...then again it is just so easy and cheap to eat out alot and cook easy things like eggs on toast or ranmeyon(noodles).

Merry Christmas Everyone

2006-12-26T22:18:00.000+09:00

Here's a couple of shots of us celebrating Christmas. We ate at a Canadian style bar in Itaewon called the Rocky Mountain Tavern. They served a turkey dinner with gravy, mashed spuds and cranberry jelly. It was good to spend the day stuffing ourselves as per tradition. We also drank alot as they suppplied a never ending jug of beer. The party we were with included Marie and her parents, Ian, Sun Mi and Alfie who are teachers at our school.

Merry Christmas to family and friends. I did miss you all.

Hamsters and Chilly activities

2006-12-07T11:30:00.000+09:00

This is Insadong in November. Clare and I went on a Christmas shopping expedition and the place was alive with traditional activities. Korean sweets were being made and sold on the street with long cold queues of Koreans waiting to buy them. At one point there was a parade of drummers that bounded past clashing their brass drums.

It was getting quite cold at this time so I bought myself a new hat which you can see both Clare and I modelling below.

I never thought that I would get such good use out of a hat with fur line ear flaps! Clare calls it my Hamster hat as it makes me look like a hamster and perhaps the fur is Hamster too. The hamster in the photo is Heungbu. She and her brother had to be seperated as they were becoming too familiar with one another. We thought she was a girl. Her brother has gone to live with Sun Mi across the hall so the can keep in touch but not make minature inbred hamsters.

More Pics

2006-11-19T13:47:00.000+09:00

ECC Work Shop

2006-11-14T13:01:00.000+09:00

Above is Clare and her cast for "The Wizard of Oz" Clare is the bad witch!

Below is my class and I doing a dance during our performance to "Hit the Road Jack"

We had been working for months on this Work Shop and so now you can to see some of the finished product.

The purpose of the Work Shop is to show the kids parents their excellent English skills by performing an English play and English songs. It was alot of work for everyone and nerves were running hing on the day. I can't remember feeling as nervous as I did for a long time.

I am the stunning actress in the bird costume. The middle kid is Mother Swallow and Jeff on the left and myself are the Baby Swallows. I also had a stint dressed as Fred Flinstone for my part as the pumpkin monster.
These are Clare's kids doing their ballet dance to the music from Swan Lake.

There was no dress rehearsal no serious stage rehearsal. Unless you call walking the kids on stage for 5 minutes serious. So these poor 5 -7 year olds were unaware of how it would feel under the lights in their costumes! Besides all that all of them did really well. Of course there were funny moments. The kid who fell over or in my case who wandered around the stage hopelessly trying to find his mark. Parents laughed while I did a silly dance in the wings trying to get him to the right place.

Moonmak Ranch Weekend

2006-11-07T15:16:00.000+09:00

This weekend the Soeul Sisters organised a trip to Moonmak. Moonmak is about an hour and a half East of Central Seoul. It is an agricultural area which is packed with rice paddies. It is also a nice recreational area for hikers and horse enthusiasts.

The Sisters arranged for us to visit a ranch in Moonmak where we rode horses for a little while and we also frolicked a little in the Autumn leaves. The valley was wallpapered in yellow, red and brown. The rice paddies had been harvested and bales were ready to be collected and stacked up for the cold days ahead.

The horses were lovely. Our guide and ranch manager Anna had a good array of breeds. Palomino and Shetland were the only ones I can remember. Some of the horses she had bought over from America when she moved. Clare, Marie and I explored a bit as we were told that there were Moon Bears being farmed in the area. It is a bit of a sad story as the Bears are caged and milked for their bile which is used for traditional medicines. We were morbidly fascinated to see them. I have found that the IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) has a spot about the bears mistreatment. We didn't manage to find the cages but perhaps it was a good thing as it might have been upsetting.

Although we didn't find the bears we did manage to find an artificial fishing hole surrounded with old car seats under canopies. The hole was packed with fish! I guess if you have a limited time this is an ideal place to go an make sure you will catch something.

After our session on the horses we ate a late lunch outside in a spot over looking the ranch and farm land. We were joined by a couple of giant wasps interested by our in red wine.

A little saddle sore, stuffed with pasta and tired from the fresh air we retired to our pensions. The Sisters rented out two brand new pensions (cabins) huddled on a crest overlooking the river.

Halloween!

2006-11-01T13:41:00.000+09:00

It was a crazy busy day for us at ECC. Here are some of Clare's kindy kids looking happy dressed up in their costumes. Candy, face painting, haunted houses and then a party in the park with their Mums and Dads made it a fast paced day.

It all ended with a dance party and even the sun came out so that it was too hot! Good fun. Happy Halloween!

Clare's kindy kids on Halloween day.

Cheusok Vacation

2006-10-27T21:07:00.000+09:00

For Cheusok Vacation we ended up staying in Korea and visiting Jeju Island. The statue you see above is intended to ward off evil. They usually are at the entrances or gate ways on Jeju Island.

The Island is on the Southern Coast and it is a very popular destination for domestic tourists. It was just over an hour flight from Gimpo Airport. Koreans are very proud of the Island as it is very beautiful. It is certainly not as developed as Uijongbu which made a nice change and the landscape was less mountainous than that of the mainland. Jeju is a volcanic island and some of the coast has distinctive black lava rock which makes a great home for sea life of all sizes. It also sported some nice sandy beaches which we were glad we could relax on! This is Jangnam beach on the South Coast.We had a pretty good time. I would advise anybody going to stay on the Southern side as there are more attractions and facilities. Our stay was influnced by a stinky old hotel which served terrible breakfasts. That made us feel ripped off a bit. Also it was a little difficult being there at Cheusok as cars and motorbike rentals were booked up. We got the hang of the buses after the first couple of days and then started to enjoy our holiday.

During our trip we saw a group of women divers setting out to work. I am not sure what they were going to collect. Jeju is known for its strong hard working women so I was delighted to see these ladies getting ready to go.

There are also really good Lava Caves on the Island. Aparently there were bats living somewhere in there but they tend to keep away from the foot traffic.

Surprise Hamster Babies

2006-10-27T21:03:00.000+09:00

These little beauties are Marie's hamsters. She lets me baby sit her hamsters occaisionally. It amuses me to see them chew and scurry around a cardboard playground that I made them. She purchased the two boys together. Except that they are now parents to 7 baby hamsters. Needless to say that Marie was pretty suprised to hear strange squeeking and 7 hairless babies in the bottom of her cage. We looked up pictures on the net and so we know which one is the mum and which is the dad.

I'm hoping that I can care for onw for the remainder of the time that we are here! I'll make a brilliant hamster mum.

Hamsters Galore

DMZ Trip

2006-10-24T21:27:00.000+09:00

Saturday was our DMZ trip. It was really interesting and emotional.
During the tour we got to see one of about 20 tunnels that the North Korean forces dug in an effort to get behind the US and ROK forces. A 1.2 km tunnel which would have let out about 30,000 troops per hour.
The tunnel was not that big only about 1.4-2m wide and 2m high. The walls were painted black by the Nth Koreans to disguise the tunnel as a "coal mine" when the ROK forces discovered it. The DMZ area is quite beautiful but it was sad for me to look over at the barren Nth Korean mountains. All the trees have been removed either for firewood or security purposes. We saw a huge flag pole with a 30 metre long Nth Korean flag adjacent to the slightly smaller Sth Korean flag and flag pole. The Nth Korean flag needs 600lbs of drag weight to fly and needs to be replaced 3x a year as it tears easily under its own weight.
There was also a jamming tower in the distance which purpose is to stop Sth Korean TV and radio transmissions penetrating the Nth Border. The tour guide told us that TV shows in the Nth are all prerecorded and of course are mainly propoganda about Kim Jong Il.

At onse stage we saw from our bus window "The Bridge of No Return". This was a purpose built bridge to facilitate the exchange of POW's. POW's were taken there and could chose whether they would like to stay or go to the other side. 13,000 were brought from the Nth and 82,000 from the Sth.

I spent approximately 2 minutes in Nth Korea itself. We were in a UN building at Punmanjeom in the Joint Security Area. There are 4 buildings that sit across the Nth Sth border. We visited one of these where Swiss and Norweigan delegates meet with Sth and Nth representatives. There was a very tired looking UN flag sitting in the middle of a small table.

During our tour of the JSA we were accompanied by 2 US soldiers and 8 ROK soldiers. The ROK men were in pretty intimidating outfits. Shiny blue/black helmets, sunglasses to hide their eyes, jutting jaw lines as if their teeth were clenched and they all stood with clenched fists in a Tae Kwan Do ready position.

Outside the building across the courtyard there was a single Nth Korean soldier standing outside his building. I got a picture of him in his brown uniform and high fronted hat. I spotted a strange red light and apparently there were quite a few Nth Korean Soldiers observing us. The US soldier told us that occaisionally when there are meetings being held in the UN building Nth Korean soldiers make gestures and faces at them from next door. It was a long day but I am really glad that I got to go to the area and learn a bit more about events near there. The US soldier also said that nothing had changed since the nuke test either. Photography was pretty limited through out the area but we got a few shots off.

When the ROK soldiers walk they make a rattling sound because they have ball bearings sewn into the seams of their trousers. During the war this was to give the illusion of more troops approaching as Nthern forces and Allies out numbered that of the Sth.

Cheusok at ECC

2006-09-30T20:27:00.000+09:00

Columbus class in Hanbok. From the left; Alex, Alice, Hillary, Dorothy, Helen, Jeff, Emilie and Brendon. Edward - not in the picture sulking at his desk.

Cheusok is Korean Thanksgiving. The kids came to school dressed in their favourite Hanbok and we celebrated by making Song Pyun (rice sweet cakes). The kids had a good time kneading the rubbery dough and putting rasins, chesnut crumbs and sesame seeds in them.

Sliding out of September

2006-09-30T20:12:00.001+09:00

September and August really slipped away on me. Within these 8 or so weeks I have had to say good-bye to the hot temperatures and consistent night time aircon and hello to brilliant clear days with blue skies.

I have really enjoyed taking my morning walk to school again. Uijongbu has been alive with colour as if celebrating outdoor living. Band practice in full red band uniform or giant pink fan dances it is all very vibrant. I do have to smile listening to the band. It just doesn't seem authentic having keyboards slamming out Y.M.C.A. Perhaps I am have a traditional in my thinking.

Here are some pics of Shingok-dong. The skies had a particular blue clarity that reminded me of New Zealand.

Sue Teacher told me that the Korean's say at this time of year "The sky is high and the horse is getting fat." It certainly feels like a prosperous time of year.

Of course Chuesok - Korean thanksgiving is coming up in the beginning of October. I will post more about that soon.

Apartment Break In

2006-09-30T20:09:00.001+09:00

This kind neighbour went up in his crane to break into our apartment. Clare and I had yet again lost/misplaced our keys. This particular time Clare left her entire bag on the subway. She made a hasty hunger fuelled exit to Krispy Kreme and let her bag go on a merry journey of it's own.

Clare was lucky enough to have the bag returned. Minus her wallet but cell phone and other contents were intact.

The rescue.

2006-09-30T20:09:00.000+09:00

Han River ?Mokpo Bridge?

2006-09-30T20:06:00.000+09:00

Growing veges anywhere!

2006-09-30T20:05:00.000+09:00

Feeling Hot?

2006-08-07T13:38:00.000+09:00

Clare's b'day at Longos with Foreign Teachers

2006-08-07T13:37:00.000+09:00

Koh Samui airport- Customs building

Snorkelling

2006-08-07T13:36:00.000+09:00

Here is a picture of Hugh and Trai when we went Snorkelling on an Island in Thailand. We were quite sea sick on the way back to the shore but the whole trip was really fun. We saw lots of fish and coral. Beautiful colours under the water. I even took a underwater camera so I will have to get the pictures scanned onto the computer so that everyone can see them. I actually returned with a few coral cuts as a memento of the trip. I have to say tat I tried to be careful but gosh that stuff was sharp. I didn't want to end up like Lana Cocroft with her strange disease.

Hugh and Tri at Nangyuan Island resort.

Turtle Rock Tumble

2006-08-07T13:31:00.000+09:00

There is a good story behind this picture. There almost wasn't a picture in fact!

Clare and I rented a scooter and spent alot of time zooming about amongst all the Thai traffic while enjoying the breeze. The scooters are really cheap and we found it a good way to look around. It was really liberating to be able to drive again. Even if it was on a 100cc scooter.

One of our trips took us inland on Koh Samui to a coconut plantation/jungle area. There you could go for Elephant treks nice walks or ATV rides. The area boasted spectacular waterfalls so we took a "10 minute" walk into a river valley. It was a rather steep walk and typical of Thai timing the 10 minutes was was probably about 30 minutes!

The windy walk took us over big exposed tree roots and large river boulders. It wasn't marked very clearly but there were guide ropes to help us over some of the terrain. It felt like a real adventure like I was Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. I don't think Clare found it as fun as I did. I have always been a keen rock hopper and adventure playground participant.

It certianly was a world away from the crammed up city life that we are used to in Korea. I didn't see a waterfall that outdid anything in New Zealand but there was a wonderful carved Turtle rock that was about 6 feet long.

It was at this point in our walk that we lost control of the camera and it spilled down the rocks and into the water below. Both Clare and I were yelling while I tried to scramble after it into the water. I don't know what good the yelling did but it made the scene more dramatic. I did manage to rescue the camera however it didn't work for the next 24 hours. We are lucky I guess that the Thai weather evaporated the water out of the circuits.

Our walk took a gloomy turn from then on. We wanted to just get home and mope. The temperature seemed to rise as did the incline of the path. We tried to take a short cut off the beaten path that almost killed us. Clambering up a steep path while hanging on for dear life to roots and grass. We eventually got back to our scooter - a bit dirtier and thirstier.

Good thing is that we have the pictures to show for our efforts.

Turtle Rock

2006-08-07T13:29:00.000+09:00

Sea Breeze beach front

2006-08-07T13:27:00.000+09:00

Elephant ride

Kid Photos

2006-08-07T13:17:00.000+09:00

My Columbus class kids in various costumes. The boys are having a special birthday at ECC. They are dressed in their traditional Korean costume waiting to be called up to blow out a birthday candle. The hats aren't so traditional.

The girls are in their swimming suits. Helen in the red is particularly cute with a little rose on her swimming hat. We were swimming at Summer Camp in June which was alot of fun.

Boryeong Mud Festival June16th and 17th.

2006-08-07T12:42:00.000+09:00

This trip was a must do according to a number of people who had been last year. Tens of thousands of people each year go to a seaside town called Boryeong on the West Coast of South Korea where they roll in amazing mud. The mud is great for the skin and one weekend a year you can go and slide, sculpt and play in the mud while becoming more beautiful!?

We traveled with Adventure Korea once again. They took us on the 3 hour trip to Boryeong by bus and set up our accommodation for a relatively cheap fee. Mind you we were staying in a guest house where you sleep on the floor! Sun Mi is hiding under the covers after a big night out into the photo below.

Through AK we got to visit the actual mud flats which was about 30 mins out of Boryeong. There we underwent a mock "Boot Camp" dressed up in army pants and black t-shirts while ordered to roll/run/jump in the mud together.

The town of Boryeong was small but it had a decent festival/party atmosphere created by all the visitors. Plenty of BBQ seafood smells to enjoy as we walked around stalls and activities in the township. There were cheap massages available, mud body painting and mud pottery. Clare, Sun Mi, Marie and I all made a piece to remind us of Boryeong.

The weather was a quite wet through out so we had to spent some quality time in Hofs. Many of them overlooked the beach. I really miss the coast so for me the view was as enjoyable as the beer. I don't know how well the town was prepared for the numbers of people that arrived. We managed to drink one Hof dry of beer and apparently Lotteria was eaten out of chicken strips!

Clare and I only went swimming the once but the water was surprisingly warm. There was good surf which was nice to play in.

The trip back was pretty lengthy thanks to flooded roads in Seoul which held us up for an extra hour. We still made it for the last subway back to Uijeongbu.

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

2006-07-07T08:48:00.001+09:00

Shingok Teachers on their rafting adventure.

2006-07-07T08:47:00.000+09:00

View from rafting HQ

White water rafting

2006-07-02T19:37:00.000+09:00

Saturday 24th of June and the teachers from ECC Shingok embarked on an adventure through "Adventure Korea".

It began with an early morning subway ride to Hongik University station. Not too much of a struggle for Clare and I. It was more of a struggle for some others in our party who were out that morning watching the Korean's play the Swiss. A big game for Korea. They needed to win to make it out of the prelimnary pool. The subways on the way in were loaded with depressed half sober Koreans wearing their red shirts. The loss made me wonder what all the vendors in Korea were going to do with all the red t-shirts printed with World Cup 2006 slogans. "Korea Fighting". I am certainly glad that the annoying 'Champion' theme song won't be played for another four years.

We were lucky to have made it on the trip as we arrived 15 minutes late for the connecting bus. A miscalculation in how long it would take to get from Uijongbu made us a bit late. Thankfully, Dave was at the bus earlier and prevented them from leaving without us.

We traveled North towards the DMZ into some beautiful country. South Korea is very mountainous but if there is any flat land the Koreans are trying to grow something on it. Strips beside the road between pavements and buildings become pumpkin patches.

The area leading into the river had quite a few rice paddy fields. The first that I have seen. All the rice plants in perfect rows. Interestingly enough Korea cannot grow enough rice to feed it's own people. Hence, the tenacity to grow anything anywhere.

Unfortunately, our camera is not waterproof so we couldn't take pictures from the raft. We spent a good 2 and a half hours on the raft and went through some fun rapids. In the quiet spots the raft guide would show us games to play that usually involved me falling out of the raft. I swallowed a good portion of North Korean water. I hope that the radioactivity was watered down somewhat!

We stopped at one area and drank water from a spring. Across from the spring was a sheer cliff which during heavy rains has thousands of tiny waterfalls tumbling down.

After the rafting we had a buffet lunch and then went to a different river area to let about 15 people bungee jump. I would have gone except that the jump was about 1/2 the size of the one in Queenstown.

We hung out in pretty horrible heat. Unable to swim due to a 15 meter bolder trek, not really wanting to swim because there was visible scum on top of the water. Although, the scum didn't deter a few agashi's from fishing. It was a popular picnic spot with a different group of agashi's who cooked a lunch on makeshift stoves and drank soju out of the back of their car. It seems to be a common activity groups of older people hanging out on the weekends. They gather in parks to sing nori bang or to eat in the sun. I couldn't help but wonder how long this particular group had know each other. Whether they have lived in this area so close to North Korea for their whole lives and what they had seen happen in their life times.

The rafting trip wound up at about 6pm and we cruised back into Seoul. We crawled into bed with sore arms from rowing and some water in my ears. A few teachers sported nice sunburns to remember the day.

Birthday celebrations

2006-07-02T19:23:00.000+09:00

My first overseas birthday happened this year. Countdown to thirty! In recent years I haven't had family around to celebrate with me so the only real change was the friends I was with.

The tradition at school is to get a birthday cake from the other teachers and be "surprised" between classes. Clare organised a yummy pineapple sponge cake which was presented to me after having tiny explosive streamers fired at me on my way into the office.

The weekend was busy with birthday events. On Saturday Clare and I went for a picnic with Seoul Sisters at a forest in Seoul. It was a nice day and the favourite activity was sticking our feet in the artificial stream that was running beside our picnic spot. The area also had some deer and a viewing bridge into the river to see big fish. It was nice to look at some animal life for a while. Jessie and Rebecka also gave me a cake! Two cakes I know! Due to the world cup fever here the cake came with special "red devil" horns that I got to wear the whole afternoon instead of a birthday hat.

That night Clare and I ate at my fav Italian place which was excellent.

On Sunday more eating in Seoul with brunch with all the teachers. I thought that the teachers wouldn't make it as they had been out until 4 and 5am that morning. Luckily they had stayed in Seoul overnight and they all made it to the brunch!

I'll leave you with a few pics of the day.

Clare and I at dinner in the Italian Restaurant.

Clare up the top of artifical waterfall in Seoul Forrest. She blends in well. :)

Seoul Sisters in "Young Guns" formation walking to Seoul Forrest from the subway station.

2006-06-14T13:26:00.000+09:00

Here are some pics of the wedding that all the teachers were lucky enough to attend. Jenny and Michael the bride and groom looked great on their special day. You can also see some of the other traditional dress that the ladies were wearing.

The wedding was lovely. A bit different from what I have seen before but aparently it was a more Westernised format. The whole event was over in about 2 hours from whoa to go. Jenny and Michael had to survive the whole event on a sip of champagne! Everyone else was eating while they got changed and then said thank you to every person for coming.

There may be a pic that I can get hold of with Jenny and me together and also of all the ECC people and B and G.

Wedding party.

2006-06-14T13:25:00.000+09:00

Jenny and Michael's wedding.

2006-06-13T15:20:00.000+09:00

Hello lovelies. I have been slack at writing in general. Blame it on skype where I can talk easily to mum and sometimes Nelson. Mind you some Kiwi mates are pretty terrible at e-mailing so I don't get enough reminders to mail out! Hint hint.

This pic is Clare and me having a nice drop of Sav on the roof of the apartment building. It was a nice afternoon. Don't let the hazy background fool you. We get a good view of the mountains that surround the area and of course plenty of apartment buildings too. There is a nice neon glow at night and we have been known to play cards or catchphrase by candlelight.

I'm trying to upload some photo's of the wedding that I went to but I think that I exceeded my limit today so I'll try again soon.

Have had some beautiful days. A couple of thunderstorms too. Been glad of air conditioning. Going to the swimming pool once in a while is really refreshing too. I need the exercise seeing as I haven't been to soccer in ages.

I like the thunderstorms here. They are loud and long. You hear the thunder for a few hours before the rain arrives. I actually glanced at a book that said in the 1950's South Korean soldiers in this region mistook the sound of North Korean tanks as thunder which meant that they were not prepared for a major tank attack.

This made me feel not so silly after I asked a colleague at work if there was shelling practice nearby.

Cheers and will write more and post more pics soon!

How posh. Rooftop drinkies.

2006-06-13T15:19:00.000+09:00

The lavender is lovely don't you thnk?
Painted apartment2.

Soccer in Korea.

2006-05-22T21:21:00.000+09:00

I'm part of a social soccer group in Seoul. The team is called the Korean Pacific Women's Strikers. Nice bunch of gals and it's great to have a kick around with them. Mari the main organiser arranged a game for the team versus some Korean ladies. The event was funded by the US Army who Mari works for- hence the big banner. We were given towels printed with the game date on from the Korean ladies too which was pretty sweet.

The main feature - aside from the football was the BBQ lunch after. Huge bits of chicken smothered in BBQ sauce and heaps of potato salad. Clare was allowed on base to watch the game and have lunch which was pretty nice.

The Strikers acutally ended up playing 3 halves (?) because there were two Korean teams that turned up. I was quite knackered. Still Clare and I wandered the base a little and it took us about an hour to find a subway station at the other side of Yonsang base!

It's a pity that it takes so long to travel to play in Seoul otherwise I would go every weekend and become super fit. They are quite good at getting you running around the place!

Soccer in Korea. Part of the Good Neighbours program for the US Army and ROK.

Kelly's Birthday in Korea.

2006-05-22T21:20:00.000+09:00

The other weekend it was Kelly's birthday. The birthday girl on the left in the picture was enjoying a spot of flavoured Soju with Joe and Rachel. They had tomato flavour which was particularly refreshing. Prefered the plum flavour though.
Seeing as it was Kelly's bash we though spelling out her name was a good idea. The night went on and we ended up at a Hip Hop club (Zen) down the road.

Kelly's birthday in Sinchon.

Korea's National Drink.

2006-05-22T21:18:00.001+09:00

This is a sample of Korea's national drink. SOJU. It's so fabulous that there are dancing Soju bottles in the street encouraging more soju drinking. It was actually highly amusing to see these 5 bottles bopping away. It was a stinking hot time of day so I am sure the poor buggers inside were not enjoying themselves as much as the crowd that gathered.
More dancing Soju bottles!

2006-05-22T21:18:00.000+09:00

Dancing Soju Bottles!

Lotus Lantern Festival

2006-05-05T12:07:00.000+09:00

The joys of Korean information seem to be that you can't really rely on any one source to give you the correct details. Also this information may be subject to change (with or without notice). Seriously one of the info pamphlets for the festival actually said this....Anyway this made it somewhat difficult to find out when and where everything was actually happening. We had heard that we could make our own lanterns but nobody seemed to be sure exactly when we could do this. Fortunately we ended up finding the correct time(despite the official website being written in 2004) and turned up on Sunday the 29th April to make our lanterns. The festival is a part of the wider celebrations for Buddha's birthday and the lotus flower is a symbol used to represent good luck and fortune.

The actual lantern making took close to 2 hours and it was peppered by countless photo opportunities as the Korean media and various locals took photos of the funny looking foreigners struggling to make lanterns. Julia actually got interviewed by KBS(Korean Broadcasting Service). Our lanterns turned out pretty well as shown below and it was worth the temporarily stained pink and purple fingers that apparently only I was left with....Must of been because I was the most diligent? My lantern took the longest anyway and I had to get Kezia to help me finish off the leaves at the bottom. Unfortunately despite our hard work none of us won a prize. We did all get mini lantern making kits so we will have to have a lantern making night some time soon I think.

Julia actually got interviewed by KBS(Korean Broadcasting Service). Our lanterns turned out pretty well as shown below and it was worth the temporarily stained pink and purple fingers that apparently only I was left with....Must of been because I was the most diligent? My lantern took the longest anyway and I had to get Kezia to help me finish off the leaves at the bottom. Unfortunately despite our hard work none of us won a prize. We did all get mini lantern making kits so we will have to have a lantern making night some time soon I think.

In the evening was the parade and for this we spent a lot of time sitting down. Sounds weird I know to be sitting for a parade but somehow we managed to choose the only position where people were actually expected to sit down to watch while everyone stood on either side of us.

If we stood up we were politely and then with more frustration told to "Sit down please" by the policeman in front of us. Eventually we moved to where we could stand up but realised we would have been better off where we were... Anyway we saw some amazing lanterns and national costumes sported by the many many people walking in the parade.

Eventually we decided we had seem enough lanterns to last us for a while and made our way back on the subway before it got too busy. Our lanterns were rather cumbersome on the train but we were only a few of many who were travelling home with their lanterns as well. It must have been an bizarre sight for any people who were unaware of the festival. All in all my lantern didn't sustain too many knocks and now sits above the tv waiting anxiously to be lit up like it was intended. Next year I think I won't go so easy on everybody and will really let my natural talent for lantern making come to the fore and take home the prize as well as the lantern.

2006-05-05T12:03:00.000+09:00

Parade soldiers. Beads hanging down from their hats. Aren't their shoes cute? Carrying swords so don't mess with them.

2006-05-05T11:59:00.000+09:00

Lantern roof at dusk under the tree.

2006-05-05T11:58:00.001+09:00

Drummers in fuzzy hats!?

2006-05-05T11:57:00.001+09:00

Lantern close up at eve festivities.

2006-05-05T11:56:00.000+09:00

Jogyesa Temple with lantern roofed courtyard.

2006-05-05T11:54:00.001+09:00

Monks at Eve of Lantern Fest

In Sa Dong

2006-05-05T11:54:00.000+09:00

If you want to see an interesting part of Korea then In Sa Dong is a good place to start. It is an excellent place to go shopping for arts and crafts.

It's situated between Anguk and Jongak subway stops and you can walk from one station to the other all the while checking out the miriad of shops. Eating in the area is great too. You just need to look in the alleys behind the main street to find restaurants and hofs (beer restaurants) of all shapes and sizes. The main problem is choosing which one to eat at! The photo above is taken from the Ssamzie Market looking down onto the back alley in In Sa Dong.

In Sa Dong - backstreets

2006-05-05T11:53:00.000+09:00

Lantern at night.

Zoo Zoo - ECC Kindy Field Trip

2006-04-15T12:06:00.000+09:00

Last week on Friday we had a field trip to the Zoo. Two bus loads of 5, 6 and 7 year olds. (remember they are a year younger to us) It was quite exciting to do something outside the classroom. It was great weather too - no dust or rain!

We were lucky enough to have our own bus while the Korean teachers were on the buses with the kids for an hour. We earned our wages by being the white folk in the class pictures with sad donkeys in the back ground.

The Zoo itself was quite disappointing - there were house cats on display, 4 sad looking donkeys in a tiny pen etc. Hence, I did take any photo's of the animals.

The kids got to make their own soap to take away with them. On the left there is a photo of Clare teacher and Curie class and their soaps. Curie are first year 7 year olds.

On the right is Columbus Class. These monsters are 6 years old and it is their first year at ECC as well. The woman in the photo is my partner teacher Kate. She helps me one lesson a day. The kids get so much more work done when someone is telling them off in Korean! We had just sung "Do your ears hang low" prior to taking the photo so they are pretty smiley.

The Zoo was flooded with school groups all in different coloured uniforms and everyone marching around 2 by 2 at high speed to get everything seen.

We were only needed for two hours to drag the kids around the Zoo past a million kinds of monkeys. I didn't see any snakes though.

Everyone ate lunch at the zoo in a tree covered park. The kids parents supplied the teachers with lunch. There was beautifully made Kimbap, Salads and even fried chicken.

The pic above is of a typical kids lunch in Korea. Kimbap -which is a lot like Sushi but more tasty. It sometimes has kimchi and nice sauces in it and then seaweed is coated with a little sesame oil.

Aren't their little yellow tracksuits precious?

The kids usually have one field trip a month. I won't always get to go on this type of trip- instead I will get a sleep in.

2006-04-15T12:05:00.003+09:00

It's Spring. Flowers are out and I have to say it can be quite pretty. Not all the trees have leaves but there are pretty purple, yellow and white flowers everywhere. It's like we had 3 warm days and all the plants are waking up.

It's Spring!

After Dinner

2006-04-15T12:05:00.002+09:00

These guys are mostly teachers at ECC. We were walking home after havng Shabu Shabu in our neighbourhood.

From the left is Reg, Kelly, Rachel (glowing shoe girl) Grant, Whatshisface and Amy.
Crazy Foreigners!

2006-04-15T12:04:00.001+09:00

Kezia in Insa Dong

2006-04-15T12:04:00.000+09:00

Kimbap for lunch again

Flying Pigs!!

2006-04-09T19:15:00.000+09:00

How many piggy banks can you carry on your motorbike? Pretty cool aye?
Crazy piggy bank courier.

2006-04-09T19:12:00.000+09:00

This is a shot of a typical soccer field in Uijongbu. There is no grass just a big dusty area. These boys are playing soccer at the school next door to our apartment. Grass is a luxury you get with low population and good rainfall! I have played soccer at the Yongsan Army base and they have a turf which is pretty special.
Soccer field

2006-04-09T19:11:00.001+09:00

This is the building which houses our school in Shingok 2 (ee) Dong. Shingok ECC. We are on the fourth floor. In the back ground are the Shinmyeon Aparte- as they say here in Korea. A couple of teachers live there so it is really handy for them. We live about a 20 minute walk from this area in Shingok 1 (il) Dong. The little blue bus you can see is the "Dashy" 206-1 which we catch to go to Homeplus and but it also can take us home.
ECC and Shinmyeon in background.

2006-04-09T19:11:00.000+09:00

View from our apartment.

This is a snap out from our window. The river is in the foreground and you can see people walking beside it. There is a path that goes all the way to Seoul- apparently you can cycle to Seoul if you are keen. Sometimes when the mood takes me I run along that way. A bunch of apartment buildings in the shot too. They similar to ones you'll see all through out Seoul and Uijongbu.

I don't know what those hills are called.

Namsan Hike/Seoul Tower

2006-04-09T18:25:00.000+09:00

Here are some pics from a little hike that we did up to the Seoul Tower. We walked from the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul to the top of the hill. It was organised by the Seoul Sisters and was a really nice way to meet some of the other women in the group.

It was a cold dusty day but it was nice to walk through the wintery trees for an hour or so. You can see from the picture on the right that it wasn't a very good day to view the city. We didn't bother going up the tower, but maybe on a clearer day it would be worth it.

After the hike we had a meal at a Thai place and then hung out at Starbucks in Itaewon. We got to know Alice from the UK and Nic from New Zealand.

Itaewon is pretty fun. There is good shopping an loads of Western restaurants. Except you will pay for it! I'm scoping out a leather jacket in Itaewon for when I can afford it.

2006-03-30T14:22:00.000+09:00

Outside restaurant with pretty lights.

2006-03-30T14:19:00.000+09:00

The cutest Pumpkin Soup!

2006-03-30T14:18:00.000+09:00

Dinner at Italian Restaurant in Seoul

Dinner Show goes Wrong

2006-03-30T13:45:00.000+09:00

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

2006-03-25T11:23:00.000+09:00

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

2006-03-18T07:24:00.000+09:00

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

2006-03-17T20:12:00.000+09:00

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

Jinbu-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do

2006-03-16T13:10:00.000+09:00

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

2006-03-16T12:22:00.000+09:00

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.