Locking Horns

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[youtube=lX9M7kbwwbM]

Probably time for an update, I'm sure you're all dying to know what I've been up to over the last month or so...

Let's get the school stuff out the way first. To be honest there's nothing much new in school these days. I've got used to how everything works so nothing really surprises me anymore! What has been really cool is watching the kids getting better at English so quickly. It's particularly noticeable with the really young kids. A few months ago they were rolling around on the floor, maybe saying the odd word in English. And now some of them are starting to string sentences together. Or at least be able to communicate things using four or five words to give a general picture of what they mean. Something like 'Justin...house...yo-yo...angry bird...light'. So that's been pretty cool, I didn't think that would happen so quickly.

I also had my first experience of someone pooing their pants in class this month. And unbelievably it was from one of the afternoon classes, and these kids are old enough for that not to happen. It was pretty clear from the smell that someone had decided not to bother with the bathroom, and I didn't want to embarass anyone so I just politely said that if anyone needed to go to the bathroom they could go. But then they started trying to pin it on me, saying that it was me that had done it! Well no more being polite...but regardless of my investigations I couldn't work out who it was and gave up. It was the last lesson of the day and I decided to just let the mother of whoever it was sort it out. But sitting with that smell for 50 minutes whilst being accused of pooing my pants by a bunch of 9 year olds was not the ideal end to my day. Probably could of handled that one a bit better I suppose. I'm not sure I ever wrote about the time a few months ago when one of the kids in my class went to the toilet and I forgot about him - when I remembered 20 minutes later I found him sitting on the toilet holding toilet paper out to me, I assume asking me to do his dirty work for him. At which point I informed him that was definitely not part of my job description, showed him the action of how to do it (which he should definitely already know at 6 years old?), and told him to hurry up! But luckily these are the only two poo related incidents I've had to deal with. Probably shouldn't say that...famous last words maybe?!

We've been on a few field trips with the kids too, which are obviously my favourite days. Apart from the fact I don't have to do any work, it's really nice to be able to mess around with the kids without having to shout and get angry at them when they're messing around. Last month we took them to the horse racing stadium. I was excited because I thought we were going to watch the horse races, but somehow I didn't see a single horse there. They just rented bikes out for the kids, where I quickly became a target for the kids to try and run into with their bikes. So it was a good bit of exercise for me!

The festival we went to this month was the Cheongdo Bullfighting Festival. Before anyone starts commenting about how cruel it is, it's not quite the same as the Spanish bullfighting. This is the Korean version that has been going on for years, where it's two bulls that fight each other. Everyone bets on the bull they want to win (although it turned out the betting wasn't quite as simple as that), and the bulls lock horns until one of them gives up and runs off. I managed to win 100 Won on one of the fights (try and say that quickly!), which is equivalent to about 5p. Don't worry, I quit while I was ahead! The atmosphere was really good, and there was tons of things to do outside, loads of rice wines, food, mechanical bulls and so on, so we had a great day out.

One of my friends, Tom, is quite into going on night hikes, and he invited me on one a few weeks ago. So we set off one evening during the week to try and scale one of the mountains in Busan - Jangsan. This is not something I would ever consider doing at home, but as with everything else I've been up to in Korea, I just said yes and went along with it...you never know what interesting things you might come across! There were rumours of huge wild boar that roam this mountain at night, and we were hoping to catch sight of one of them. I managed to forget my torch, and so we relied on Tom's head torch and my phone to get us up the mountain. We had no idea where to start or how long it would take to get up there, and I admit I was pretty scared the whole way up. I just couldn't get the thought of the Blair Witch Project (and every other horror film I've seen) out of my head. Pretty soon after starting we came across an amazing temple on the side of the mountain, all lit up. Going to temples can be a bit samey, but seeing this one in the dark was pretty special. And after a long climb we eventually got to the top to be greeted with the glittering lights of pretty much the whole of Busan below. It was a spectacular sight, it was great to see so many of the landmarks that I know so well but from a completely different perspective. Doing things like this really make me realise how easy it is to miss out on great things just because doing it is something you wouldn't normally do. This has happened to me so many times in Korea, and it's really made me a much more open minded person. I don't know whether you've read the book (or seen the film) 'Yes Man', but saying 'yes' to random things is a such a good way to find fun in places that you might not expect it!

The rugby team had a tournament last month up in Seoul, so I made my first pilgrammage up to the capital. Only 2 and half hours away on the high speed train, it's pretty easy to travel the length of the country here. No time for sightseeing though - we were straight onto the American military base, where the tournament was being held. Now I've never been to America, but the base was exactly what I imagined America to look like. American restaurants everywhere, American style schools, American cars, all the prices in dollars. Really weird. And none of the kids said 'hello'. And their mothers were ushering them away from any kind of stranger. I love how in Korea every kid will say 'hello' to you, and their parents will often encourage their kids to talk to you. That's how it should be, I know there are bad people out there but the majority of people are good and Koreans don't seem to worry about it. I think that is far more healthy for the kids than the overprotective society that is spiralling out of control in the West. It took me a long time to get used to the fact that in Korea it's OK to hug the kids and be affectionate with them. At first I really didn't know how to react when they ran up and hugged me - I would stand there with my hands up as if to say 'I'm doing nothing wrong, there's nothing I can do about this'. In fact, on the bus this morning there were two young kids, maybe 5 or 6 years old, going to school on their own. And I watched as along the journey, several times people on the bus would help them out -steady them when they were stumbling, talk to them, offer them their seats. How great is that - at home I would be scared to even talk to them for fear of being accused of something or other.

But anyway, I'm going off topic. So the rugby tournament in Seoul was great, but tough going. The weather was scorching hot, and we were there all day without any real shade. Our first game was against one of the US military teams. I was excited about this, it's not often you get the chance to legally attack a bunch of US soldiers! They were big boys, but they couldn't really play rugby, so we won that game. We weren't so lucky in our other games - they were close but we were so tired we didn't play our best rugby. It didn't help that we were playing on artificial grass - I lost all the skin from both of my knees and a good chunk from my arm. I had one of the most painful showers of my life that night! After heading out in Seoul Saturday night we headed back to Busan the next day, so I still haven't seen anything in Seoul yet. Definitely need to head up there soon for a proper look around.

So this month I decided that photos don't really cut it when it comes to getting across the feel of a country. People flick through photo albums and can appreciate a good photo, but it's really hard to convey what living in a country is really like, no matter how good the photos are. So I tried to get a bit more creative, and thought that if I made a short video, I might be able to get across what living in Korea is like a bit better. I've uploaded it on here (at the top of the page) so make sure you take a look and let me know what you think!

That's enough for now then, hope you're all doing well. Miss you all, and as always keep in contact and let me know what you're up to!

Love Ross x

P.S. Places in the video (in order) are the cherry blossom; Jindo sea parting; Gijang harbour; Gijang anchovy fishermen; Boseong green tea plantation; Ajumma selling vegetables; Molundae fisherman; Cheongdo bullfighting; Cheongsando slow city; Cheongsando; Myeongji sunset (where I live); school kids at the horse racing stadium; Yonggungsa water temple; Myeongji sunset over Yongwon and the Nakdong River; Hadan subway; traffic in Hadan at night; neon lights of Hadan; view of Busan from Jangsan mountain; Diamond bridge in Busan.

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