Leaving

Hi again,

This is the first blog post that I've written from my new home. Most of you know this already, but I've moved from my little town and little schools in the mountains of Gangwon-do, to the industrial suburbs south-west of Seoul to teach at a university here.

This of course, meant saying goodbye to friends and colleagues that I've made over the past two years in my little town, which was of course a tremendously sad, and incredibly drunken experience. It all started with an overnight teacher trip down the east coast of Korean, visiting caves, fish museums, and finishing up in a crab restaurant with a lot of soju and a whole crab each.

If you're wondering, this is a rock formation in the cave. 

Note the pretend microphone fashioned from two soju bottles and a pair of spoons. Classy. 

Following this was a "little" party back in Jinbu, at the marvellous Bar Cello. I have to say thanks to everyone (foreign and Korean) who came and made it an unforgettable night, that is at the same time very difficult to remember. Possibly the strangest part was fancy dress gear appearing at about 2am, as evidenced below. It wound up with an 8.30am walk home, and perhaps the worst Monday I have ever experienced. Worth it though.

After I stopped alternately shivering and sweating, began to be able to eat again, and the endless looping of Take A Look Around by Limp Bizkit in my head subsided a little (this was about Wednesday) I decided to get drunk again. Well, I say I decided; in actual fact my friends decided for me my inviting me to a barbecue in a carpenter's workshop. This did afford me one of those uniquely Korean experiences though - cleaning a barbecue using meat and booze. The procedure is as follows: light the charcoal (with a blowtorch, of course), and then put the grill top on. Once it gets nice and hot, choose some fatty bits of meat, and rub them all over the top of it, until you have a nice paste of dirt and hot fat. Then, throw a bottle of the local spirit over the top to wash this paste off and sterilize the grill. If you're lucky, you'll get a nice lungful or two of boozy steam as well (nb. I'm almost certain that this is not good for you). Korea, I think you should be worried when your national beverage is cheap and strong enough to be used as barbecue cleaner. Just saying.

Cleaning in process.

After we'd cooked the meat, we then engaged in some proper man cooking - making fried rice. This involves throwing rice, any leftover meat, and pretty much anything else that's lying around on the grill and mashing it all up (using what looked suspiciously like a plastering tool). It actually turned out surprisingly well, too.

Men at work. 

And then, sadly, it was time to say goodbye to my apartment, which while a little bit tatty, will be by far the biggest place I will have to myself for a while. It's also been the scene of a lot of happy memories - I'll always remember 성원APT 1동 1002호, it's name will always send shivers down my spine.

On the way out :(

Still, on to bigger and, err, smaller things. As with most jobs in Korea, my new one provides accommodation, though this time it's in the dormitory. Still, I've actually been pleasantly surprised by the size of the room. It's about 18 feet by 9 feet, and is well enough designed to squeeze in a bed, desk, dressing table, sofa, a wardrobe and large cupboard as well as a bathroom. All of my stuff fits comfortably in (although I threw a lot out before I left). I've also gone up in the world, moving from the 10th to the 18th floor.

Night view. 

Day view. 

 View from the door.

Bathroom. 

Sofa, bed, and as yet undisposed of moving boxes.

Dresser. 

Desk.

Right, that's all for now. I'll write another post about teaching and work fairly soon. Until then...

A

News & Photos

Hi all. I've managed to find a spare hour in my weekend to write a blog post. I'm fine, in case you were wondering. This semester is now well underway, and things seem much less stressful and rushed than last semester, mostly because I simply have less classes, but also because the second semester is a couple of weeks shorter, and contains the Korean thanksgiving holiday, and so compares favourably to the relentless drudgery of the spring semester.

I'm currently mulling over a fairly difficult decision with regards to next year. I'm (almost) definitely staying in Korea, but I am considering changing jobs. I'd really like to work at a university if I can, but the big problem is that that requires not renewing my contract, and then searching for a university position. Obviously, were I not to get one, that would leave me in the proverbial. There's also the problem that I'd have to take a sizeable pay cut to go and work at a university. However, university work would be a lot more satisfying, I'd get to see my students more often, and teach at a bit of a higher level. On the other hand, I know I have a really good job here, with a school that is great, and good friends in my town and staying wouldn't be a bad thing at all. As you can see from this paragraph, it's not an easy decision. I'll let you know how it goes.

One pleasing bit of news is that I received a distinction for the first module of my MA course. It's always worrying waiting for work back, especially as my project was a little out there, and so carried the risk of being completely wrong. Thankfully, it wasn't, and I'm glad the hours of transcribing my conversations with students weren't in vain.

Anyway, that's pretty much all my news. I haven't been up to much since my last post, so below is a collection of photos from stuff I've done this year that I haven't had time to post about.

Before the summer break I had to say goodbye to my third grade classes. This made me really sad, as a nicer, more enthusiastic bunch of students you couldn't hope to meet. Really. Even the naughty kids were great. I already miss these guys an awful lot. One advantage of getting a uni job would be getting to teach some of them again!

LG Twins vs Samsung Lions baseball game in Seoul

Linda and an upside-down seal at COEX acquarium.

Zip-lining in Jumunjin.

What the Koreans really think of us.

The alchemy of dakkgalbi: a magical transformation of cabbage, chicken and pepper paste into the greatest dish in Korea. This was taken at the Chuncheon Dakkgalbi festival, where it was so good we ate it twice.

Making and eating spicy cold noodles (way, way better than it sounds), also at the Dakkgalbi festival.

That's it for another post. More news when I have time, but with my next MA module starting, it might be a couple of weeks.

A

How are you, Grev?

In which I make one of those general posts about my life. If you're not interested, feel free to stop reading here. I won't be hurt. I wouldn't want to read about me either. For those of you still with me...

Work

This is more or less my entire life these days, at least Monday to Friday. As I've griped about previously, I get up, start working, stop and go to bed. Actually it's not that bad, but I would think by the time 2011 finishes I'll have put as many hours into professional activities as I did in two when I worked in England. This isn't a bad thing - a lot of those extra hours are put in voluntarily and are aimed at making me a better teacher, which is often a very engaging and enjoyable process, which doesn't really fell like work.

At school I am two days away from being finished for the semester. Realistically, I am already done, as I'm spending this week doing listening discovery exercises with episodes of The Simpsons. Not a very tricky way to spend a week. However, teaching never really stops here, as the following two weeks I have summer camps to work. Korean education tends to view quantity of education as more important than quality, so there's never much of a chance to rest for student or teacher. I shouldn't complain too much though, some of my Korean colleagues get no summer vacation at all this year.

Similarly my studies are winding down. I say winding down, they're more winding up, as I have a little under 4 weeks to produce my final project for this module. For once I have made a decent start already, and I'm already 3,000 out of 6,000 words in. This weekend I have to listen to and transcribe 28 student interviews though, which is not going to be a lot of fun. Still, I'm confident of coming out of it with a decent grade.

Life

I am still finding time to have a little fun outside of work. It's been raining on and off here for the past three weeks which has dampened things a little, and completely wiped out football. One of the times it rained on was Monday evening and I was 8 miles away from home on my bike. I don't think I have ever been out in heavier rain. I could barely see 50 yards in front of me.

This weekend I was out and about in Itaewon. That's the district of Seoul where foreigners are almost in the majority, and where many of the embassies are based. It's actually a pretty nasty place a lot of the time as it's where all the American army members go out, but it's sometimes necessary to go there as it's possible to get essentials like lime pickle and mango chutney that just aren't available anywhere else in Korea. It also has a surfeit of not-shit (I'm not giving the American fruity muck they serve any better than that) beer on tap. I stayed there drinking until the baseball hats indoors crew turned up, then I cleared off to Hongdae instead.

What is pleasing me these days is Korean. I'm still not much good, but I can converse pretty easily with my friends as long as the topic is simple, and get along fine in everyday life. My MA is seriously limiting study time, but I've reached that wonderful stage in language learning where you start to pick up things just through exposure, rather than having to study them. I still want to get much better though.

Staying in Touch

I know I haven't been particularly good at keeping up with this blog, or with people who I should write to. I'm afraid that isn't that likely to change any time soon either, though if anyone is moved to send me a message of any kind I promise I will get back to you. These days I seem to be tumbling into a maelstrom of social media, but it's part of the job. Thus, if you want to contact me, or just read about me, there are a number of ways to do it:

- Email is the same as always.

- I still spend too much time on Facebook, so you can always get me through there.

- I now have a Google+, and invites to give away. Add me if you like.

- I will endeavour to write a blog post here every couple of weeks. You can always subscribe and leave me comments.

- My teaching blog is at http://breathyvowel.wordpress.com -this is mostly stuff I've been up to in the classroom, but may have the occasional interesting / funny piece.

- There is also an accompanying Twitter: @breathyvowel - I'm planning to use this as a general one from now on, but there will be quite a few ESL related tweets.

I think that's more or less it. Visitors are still welcome here if you fancy an exotic Asian getaway.

Was this post a bit needy? Oh well.

Until next time,

A

At last!

It's a sad fact, and one that does the profession no good at all, that English language teaching can be seen as something to do for a kind of working holiday; a chance to see the world for a bit while earning a little pocket money, before returning to your home country to get a 'proper' job. Strange then that I seem to have worked far harder over the two and a bit years since I left the UK than I ever did within it's borders. This has never been more true than over the last few weeks since getting back. Fortunately, things now seem to be settling down a little bit after the initial slog at the beginning of the semester, and my weeks are starting to be punctuated by public holidays, elections and school trips. Good news for you, dear reader, as I actually have some time to write my blog, and I have some half-interesting things to write about.

School Picnic

My first non-teaching day for 7 weeks fell last Friday, when the high school decamped to the sports ground for the day for the school picnic. This was a nice diversion, and was largely a chance to eat all day and play dodgeball, football and foot-baseball. The only photos I have are of my first year girls foot-baseballing; this is a shame as it doesn't show my triumphant performance in helping class 1-1 overcome 1-3 in the big football match. I don't think I've ever played a higher pressure game, as the respect of my students was on the line. Fortunately we won 4-2 and class 1-1 are now eating out of the palm of my hand. Class 1-3 were also suitably impressed, expect for the one of my students who I managed to headbutt. Oops.

My co-teacher, who for a woman of five feet two in her late 40's possesses a pretty decent right foot.

Cherry Blossoms, Raw Fish and Caves

The weekend after the picnic Linda and I set off to see the cherry blossoms in Gangneung. Though time seems to pass fairly quickly here, it does seem like a long time ago that I made this post about them last year. It was great to catch them in (almost) full bloom this year, though the howling wind was stripping them from the trees as we watched. It also gave me the chance to visit the lamest festival I've yet been to in Korea. A ragtag collection of stalls selling 1,000 won crap, and a hotdog stand. Still, we managed to pick up a pig ornament for Linda, so all wasn't lost.

After that we headed down the south coast to Samcheok, one of my favourite places on the east coast. It's port area has an array of excellent raw fish restaurants, which was a big reason we headed there. The fish was excellent, but the highlight (sort of) was the dish of still moving octopus tentacles you can watch me chow down on below.

Meat that moves! from Alexander Grevett on Vimeo.

The following day we headed out to Samcheok's principal attraction (perhaps even more famous that the penis park), Hwangseon cave. This is a 12km series of tunnels deep into one of the mountains around the town. Only the first kilometre is open to the public, but it's a pretty spectacular distance, as the cave roof is in places at least 100 feet high. Sadly the atmosphere is somewhat spoilt my the multi-coloured LED lighting that marks the gantries and rather detracts from the earthy feel of the place.

More cherry blossoms.

The funicular railway. Korea calls this a monorail. Fools.

Tee-hee.

Rejected Marilyn Manson B-side title winds up in Korean cave.

A spiral lime deposit, possibly unique in the world. Que exciting!

That's it for tonight, as I have some work to do on my teaching blog. In an attempt to make it look nice I'm learning to code CSS, which seems to be easy enough at the moment, but will doubtless become horrifically complex in the next few steps. There's not much exciting coming up in my life, but I should write about going to see Gangwon play last weekend. if I have time I'll post that up tomorrow.

Adios,

A