미안 (Sorry)

It hasn't been often that I've had to start a blog post with an apology for not posting for a while. Pretty much every post I wrote in Guatemala was prefaced with "sorry", but up to now in Korea I've been a lot better (probably because I've been an awful lot more sober). Worry not readers though (and some, well one, of you did), I haven't slipped back to the bottle, I have genuinely been too busy with other things to post on here.

I'm now starting out on my MA research assignment, looking at the effect of making your learners experts (relative to the teacher) in non-linguistic content. This involves video-recording, carefully planning 3 weeks of lessons and an awful lot of reading, all summarised in a 6,000 paper. I know I've already written about the difference between this and undergraduate work, but tonight I started to write my introduction more than 9 weeks before my assignment deadline - an unheard of and salutary experience.

I've also been busy tending to my other presence in the blogosphere, over at http://breathyvowel.wordpress.com. If anyone's interested in what I'm doing professionally you'll find quite a lot of stuff on there. I'm afraid that blog has taken priority over this one as it might help me with the next step of my career, which will probably take me away from my little town in Korea with a very heavy heart. More on that in the future when I actually figure it out.

As per usual these days, I haven't really been up to very much interesting. I've probably said this before, but my life as an ex-pat is probably far less exciting than yours, coupled with the fact that I need a mortgage to buy a block of average-quality extra mature cheddar. My days still follow a familiar pattern of Study Korean / Work / Exercise / Study TESOL, with the only thing different being whether I play Futsal or go to the gym. It does mean that I'm in pretty good shape - I'm weighing in at a positively weedy 11.25 stone (158 pounds) and there is some evidence that there may actually be muscle under the layer of flab on my belly. With the summer now almost here, I'll be quitting the gym next week to play football almost every night, and hopefully breaking out the bike again.

With the advent of summer, the opportunity to engage in one of my favourite pastimes comes around again, namely that of drinking outside shops. Many things in Korea are against the law, but tacitly accepted so long as you're not making a nuisance of yourself whilst doing it. Drinking in public is one of these. It's a very peaceful way to pass a summer evening, sitting outside your local supermarket with a 6 pack of beer and a tube of peanuts, and popping back in whenever you run out of anything.

I was reminded of the fact that I can do this by an old man sat outside the supermarket today. Due to the Confucian philosophy on which Korean society was founded, age is venerated, seemingly no matter what age is doing. In Korea it's not the juvenile delinquents you need to watch out for but the elderly ones, who seem to have license to do exactly as they please. This particular chap was taking advantage, and was sat alone with an empty litre bottle of soju and a pack or corn chips at least twice the size of his head. He appeared to be offering a running commentary on everything going on around him, to nobody in particular. This was going on when I went in to the store, and didn't appear to have let up at all when I reappeared 10 minutes later. One day, I hope to spend my idle afternoons in the same way.

I think that's enough words for now. I do actually seem to have some free time coming up, so I might manage a picturey post before the end of the weekend. If I don't, then I will at least try to post something soon, possibly pictures from the reprise of last year's camping trip, which I'm heading off on on Saturday.

Cheers,

A

Final Summer Holiday Pictures: Seoul

More than three months after I took them, here, finally, are the last photos from my summer travelling with Nick. We finished up in Gyeongju, and jumped on a 4 hour bus back to the capital to finish off our 9 day tour with a bit of partying.

We based ourselves in Hongdae, what everyone calls the area around Hongik University. It boasts a lively concentration of clubs, bars, restaurants and shops and even midweek had one of the best atmospheres for going out that I've ever sampled, not least owing to swathe after swathe of pretty Korean students wandering past you. We arrived late, and installed ourselves at the rather swanky Hotel Bobo (Korean for kiss), taking advantage of the rather fetching robes on offer there.

After a day wandering in Insadong and Myeongdong, we were alerted to the presence of proper beer. Well, not ale, but at least German micro-brew, in the extremely Germanically named Queen's Head. Before that we took on some Dakgalbi flavoured ballast, before heading to the pub. The beer was actually pretty good, though not a patch on Harveys Best, naturally.

Following this we wandered for a while, and had a couple of beers in bars where everyone was partitioned off from each other, which didn't exactly help us in our quest to meet some Korean people to talk to. Finally we gave in to the shame of visiting an establishment called "Ho Bar 4" (There are 7 or them in Hongdae alone). This was however, more conducive to meeting people, and we soon found ourselves chatting to "The Crossroads Guitar Project", a bunch of four Korean guitarists who were consoling their friend over his broken heart. Stories were swapped, homes looked at on Gmaps, vodka was drunk, Jaegerbombs were introduced to the Korean element, and generally an excellent time was had by all, especially when Nick and one of the guitarists discovered a mutual admiration for Django Reinhardt. They were also the second group of Koreans to compare him to David Duchonvy, which I thought was hilarious.

Once we'd polished off their bottle of vodka, the musicians decided it was time to call it quits, but delivered Nick and I to a club called M2 to continue drinking, and perhaps even do some "eye-shopping", as it's known here. M2 turned out to play some pretty excellent electro, which was being largely ignored by the few Koreans in there, except for three of four spread around the dancefloor moving stiltedly. It later transpired that these were actually members of staff, obviously trying to encourage people to join them, but really making the club look like the formative stages of a line dance. We had a few drinks, and were talking to some students by the bar. Things were going nicely until the electro DJ finished his set, and was replaced by some-one who was apparently in possession of a Now Dance 1998 CD. The final straw was the dropping of "Horny" by Mousse T. Nick and I fled the club and headed back out into the night air.

By now and was 2am, and Nick and I were lightly toasted, but we thought we could probably do with one more beer. Finding a bar proved to be a problem, until a group of girls asked us to take their picture. We did, and ended up going with them to Noise Basement, a hip-hop club. This is, I believe, the first time I've ever been to more than one club in a night. We stayed in noise basement for another hour and half, and I remember getting some free tequila somewhere, but the details are a bit sketchy. I do remember leaving and getting into a taxi, only for the taxi driver to refuse to take us, given that our hotel was around 100 yards down the road. We stumbled home and crashed out.

The following day took us to the clothing markets of Dongdaemun, and Apgujeong, "The Korean Beverly Hills", where the women all have surgically altered noses, and BMW delaerships have unfortunate names (see picture below). We popped over for dinner and a drink in Itaewon, but got disturbed by Americans far too fond of their own voices, and skipped back to Hongdae for one more club experience.

We'd been told about a small indie club, which had previously played host to Xiu Xiu and Do Make Say Think in it's lifetime. Sadly, no underground indie luminaries were in evidence, just some Korean businessmen doing karaoke. Undeterred, and likeing the shabby surroundings, we sat down for a beer. The barman handed us the karaoke book, and we flicked through with interest. I was mostly looking to see if "Monday Morning 5:19" by Rialto was there, as I had previously found it in the Yeongwol noraebang (Karaoke room) way out in Gangwon-do. On my flick through, I couldn't help but notice a version of "Mack the Knife" winking cheerfully at me from the page, and decided to give it a shot. It actually went pretty well, to the extent that I was high-fived off stage, and so Nick and I spent the rest of the evening singing. I can't remember what else we did, but I do have flashbacks of Wonderwall, With or Without You and Come Together (The Beatles, not Spiritualized).

After that there was just time for a sandwich and a beer outside a convenience store (my favourite Korean drinking location) before retiring again. And that was it, the following morning Nick and I said goodbye at the tube station, and he headed off back to the UK, and I to Jinbu. It was a great holiday all around though, marked by some bizzare sights, excellent food and drink and extremely kind and helpful people. I'm looking forward to the next chance I get to travel in Korea now.

A

Chuseok Diary Part 2

Thursday

The weather took a huge turn for the better on Thursday, which was good as this was to be the day I abandoned over-eating and boozing early in the afternoon, and set off on a 120km bike ride. My friend Emily and I had been planning a multi-day bike ride since the beginning of summer, and had only just got around to doing it by the middle of autumn. We were also joined by Tom, a new addition to the Jinbu teachers union.

The day got off to an inauspicious start as I sheered off the valve on Tom's bike tyre trying to pump it up. I had a spare inner-tube, but then we couldn't undo the front wheel nut, and one of my cheap tools died in the attempt to undo it. This meant an emergency call to my friend Ui Chal and his heavy duty adjustable spanner (ooh-err). Finally we got the tube changed and disappeared upstairs to meet Emily and get ready to set off. Five minutes later my phone rings and it's Tom saying that the bike has been stolen. We spend a while trying to find the security guy to no avail, so sadly Emily and I set off without Tom. A mile up the road my phone rings. It's Tom, saying the thief was in fact Caitlyn, the other new teacher who knows the code for the bike lock. She'd borrowed it to go to the bank. We stopped to let Tom catch up, and finally set off on the first leg of our trip, which would take us out to the coastal town of Jumunjin and then down to Gangeung, over one of the higher passes in Korea. If you're interested in our route, look here:

http://www.walkjogrun.net/routes/current_route.cfm?rid=511EDCA1-92F2-1001-13A5F230AD3B4342

Today we got all of the hard work done early. Almost immediately out of Jinbu the road sets out on a 5 mile long, 300m high climb to the top of the Sogeumgang valley. It's a pretty tough ask, especially when your bike's gears aren't too co-operative (Tom). Still, with some puffing and panting we all made it up to the top, where we stopped at a service area for (appropriately enough) mountain vegetable bibimbap.

Having done all of the up for the day, the next part of the ride promised to be a lot more fun. Plunging down almost 1000m to the coast on twisting roads is a much, much better idea than hauling yourself up the hill in hot sunshine. We launched ourselves down the hill, Emily and I in the lead, respectively singing and impersonating Valentino Rossi, and Tom of the one brake bicycle proceeding more steadily behind. The road was amazing - a series of tight U-bends on a steep slope. I'd love to show you photos but I was too busy going too fast and doing things I was taught never to do on my cycling proficiency test. At least I was confident of going faster than any car tackling the hill, so didn't have to look over my shoulder too often.

The only other incident of note was once the road had flattened out and we were cruising along towards Jumunjin. It being Chuseok, drink was still being taken at lunchtime, and we came upon this old fella on his motor scooter. Sadly, I missed the best bit when he was weaving all over the road and holding up a line of ten cars, but still, when you're wobbling home at 3pm on a 50cc scooter being overtaken by crazy foreigners on bikes, maybe it's time to ask yourself if you have a drinking problem.

We were going along too nicely to get my camera out again after that, until we hit the coast and turned south towards Gangneung. We stopped at Sacheonjin beach for a quick Powerade and a clamber on the rocks, before setting off down the network of excellent cyclepaths towards our final destination of Gyeongpo beach.

We got to Gyeongpo Beach as the shadows from the pines were beginning to stretch across the sand. Not an unpleasant sight to greet you at the end of a long day in the saddle. We dismounted, shackled the bikes to a tree and bought ourselves a bottle of Cass. This proved to be a mistake, as despite it being the very sound of vitality, it also becomes pretty much undrinkable halfway through a large bottle. We abandoned it and headed off for Nakji Bokkeum (hot stir-fried octopus tentacles) for dinner, and then for my first ever Jjimjilbang experience.

The Jjimjilbang is a pretty much essential Korean experience. Despite that I'd been avoiding it for a while. It's basically a public baths and sleeping room. They're frighteningly cheap, and, much like the Divine Comedy's National Express, all human life is here. 7,000won (about 4 quid, or $6) gets you a sauna and selection of pools to use for almost as long as you like. The pools range in temperature (though the one we went to only had three, I'm assured that most have more) so you can sweat everything out in the sauna, before jumping into the plunge pool for a few minutes, then climbing into the hot pool, which leaves a strange feeling of wearing your skin like a coat, or at least it did to me. Anyway, this part I really liked, and it soothed the pains built up from several hours on my bike. As long as you can put up with naked Korean men massaging each other you should be fine.

The second part is the one I'm not quite so keen on. After putting on a pair of standard-issue grey pyjamas, which are actually really comfortable, you go into the sleeping room. There's a TV to watch here, but mostly you're just here to pull out a sleeping mat (two if it's quiet) and a horrible, horrible plastic pillow and bed down for the night wherever you can find a space. Now, my experience was actually not too bad. I crawled off into the men-only (ooh-err again) space, which was completely deserted, and managed to catch about 4 hours. I was still woken up by the ceaseless snoring, and interminable comings and goings from the main room, and this was on a quiet night. I also woke up with all of my former aches and pains fully restored from sleeping more or less on the floor. Still, these were eased somewhat by another dip in the hot and cold pools, and left me ready for another hard day on the roads of Korea. I'll tell you all about that next time.

A