Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 340

Asia » South Korea November 3rd 2006

For us, the past few weeks have been a mad scramble to the mountains in an attempt to scale as many peaks as possible before the onset of winter. Surrounded by breathtaking panoramic views and spectacular seasonal leaves, motivation has come easy. We have clambered, hiked and hauled ourselves up close to 100 kilometres of rocky, boulder-strewn tracks and vertigo-inspiring cliff faces all across the northern range of South Korea .... read more

Climbed the one in the background - Ulsanbawi

Just a Taste of Korean Kulture

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang November 3rd 2006

KEB Hines Ward

Kuno

So, I was walking in downtown Seoul among all the neon signs and Korean faces and all of a sudden I see a giant billboard of Hines Ward wearing a "KEB" Jersey - KEB is Korean Exchange Bank (see attached pic). Apparently after he won the Super Bowl MVP, Koreans found out his mom was Korean and now they love him. Anybody can represent Cambell's Chunky, but you're not the man until you're sponsored by KEB. Sick. Also, smoking is pretty popular among Korean men and all you have to do is stop by a stand on the street and buy a fresh pack of Cigalettes (see attached picture). Then you can go home and watch either of two channels strictly dedicated to video games. That's right. Sometimes I watch a bunch kids play Starcraft on ... read more

Korean Klasses

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang November 3rd 2006

In Front of Palace

Kuno

션로 I think that says Shawn Roe in Korean - or Shawn Lo is how they pronounce it. I've started teaching a couple classes of my own. It's the last week of the session, but my first time with the kids, so it's kind of weird how they're doing it. The kids are either done or finishing up with their parts of the book, and I'm coming in at the end as a new teacher. So I usually just spend the first class introducing myself and getting a feel for the class. But we have to give homework every night, so I have to give the kids an assignment of some sort. It's odd. I made a couple classes write sentences for HW and some write essays. The next session starts Monday, Nov. 6, so I ... read more

Brits abroad

Asia » South Korea » Busan November 2nd 2006

Alexa and Linzi..

Midget

Yo. So I'm sitting at the work PC desperately trying to plan classes in preparation for the new classes I will be taking as of tomorrow. The students I have known and loved for the past two months will be replaced by new students who I haven't known and loved at all. Plus they are nearly all free talking classes which means I have to have a steady stream of articles up my sleeve ideally with accompanying vocab lists and thought provoking questions. Thank God for the BBC website is all I can say. Things are going ok. Still moaning daily about the early morning start as it totally limits socialising. However last weekend was an absolute blinder, probably the best I've had since I've been here. About 4 weeks ago when Will and I were ... read more

Random Acts of Kindness

Asia » South Korea » Seoul November 1st 2006

scott41679

On my first day of teaching here in Seoul, I took my laptop with me on the bus, planning to show pictures to my students during my self-introduction. On the bus, I spotted an 8-year-old kid with his dad and asked if he was going to the same school I was. When he replied yes, I immediately fixated on him and made sure that any movement he made toward the door would be followed with a copycat movement of my own. I was sweating a bit in my business suit, and when I saw him make that long anticipated movement to exit the bus, my laptop remained where I left it, on the floor by my seat. As soon as I got off the bus and it pulled away, my heart started pounding with the realization ... read more

Hey Mr. Strathchee....come here!!!!

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang October 31st 2006

Face painting

Munchkin

OK, I knew I always wanted to be a teacher during the holidays, but this was something else. First of all, it is safe to say I will have a hard time thinking kids back home are half as cute as a school full of Koreans dressed up as various idols from Western pop culture. Second of all, today is the day I learned just how fabulous my kids really are. They are, by far, the coolest kids in Korea....that is NOT a biased opinion. I swear. They were a RIOT! they always are, but totally, utterly priceless today. Really. I have been a waitress for so many years, and ALWAYS have to work Halloween for obvious reasons, so it was a real treat to be able to serve candy to the little trick or treating ... read more

Halloween

Asia » South Korea » Taejon October 31st 2006

cute kids!

Korea Bound

Hi everyone! Happy Halloween! The school organized a route for the staff kids to go on so they could still trick or treat; so we included ourselves on the list and got a steady stream of munchkins all night. Steve dressed up as a hockey player - I didn't have anything that I could even scrounge together for a costume. We gave out snicker we found at Costco (and got kinda sick eating too many in between!). Anyways, here are some pictures of the kids - they are really fun!... read more

Halloween!!

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang October 31st 2006

Class Pluto - Halloween Style

Mr S

Halloween at the school was lots of fun. Since Halloween fell on a Tuesday and we teach our elementary kids on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we got to have two parties. The first party was with the elementary kids. I have 4 kids in my E1 class (Elementary level 1), of which 3 dressed up. One was a witch, another was a skeleton and the last was a mini Dracula. I say mini because I also went as Dracula. These kids are nine years old so they are still young enough to have fun, but not get as scared as some of the other kids. My job for the activity portion of the day was to work at the game station. This job consisted of staying at a certain area in the gym and waiting for the ... read more

Korean Toilet Story

Asia » South Korea » Gyeonggi-do » Seongnam » Bundang October 30th 2006

Korean Toilet

Kuno

Alright, so Korea is apparently very technologically advanced. I knew this coming here and expected plenty of Internet access, fancy cell phones, and pretty nice computers. Well, what I didn't expect was such an electronic apartment. First off, I don't have a key to my apartment. There is a key, the type that you stick in a door-knob turn and unlock things. But the guy that let me in, Sonnie (a manager of my school) kept that key. Okay, so they must have one of those electronic keys like at nice hotels where they program a card and you slide it in your door? That would make sense - Korea is a step ahead of the game and installed that type of electronic key system not just in hotels, but in apartments now. Nope, not even ... read more

We Arrived! Our 1st Month in S. Korea...

Asia » South Korea October 29th 2006

Incheon Airport....South Korea

Laurence Melanie

Hello everyone... Greetings from S. Korea! Sorry you all haven't heard from us in awhile, but as you can probably imagine, we've been pretty busy over the past few weeks getting settled in here and getting used of our new jobs. So far, everything is GREAT and we're writing to tell you all about it!! When we first arrived in S. Korea on October 3rd, not only was it really late at night, but it was also in the middle of a big national holiday here called Chuseok. Chuseok is the Korean Thanksgiving and it falls on different days each year. This year it fell within the first week of October. We were picked up at the airport that night and taken to English Village, but needless to say, not many other people were around. So, ... read more

Brief history of South Korea

Korea was an independent kingdom under Chinese suzerainty for most of the past millennium. Following its victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Japan occupied Korea; five years later it formally annexed the entire peninsula. After World War II, a...more history

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