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Published: August 20th 2012
Hi Everyone!
So I've been here a whole week! It partly feels like 2 days, and partly feels like 2 months! I'm very settled in, yet the week has gone really, really fast :-) I've basically classed this week as a holiday, as suggested by the headteacher. So no work and lots of sightseeing, eating out and drinking! Here's a rather brief summary of how it's going so far....
It was a good start to my new life here when I got upgraded to business class on my flight from Beijing to Seoul. Obviously I would've preferred it to be for the 10 hour stint of the journey, rather than the 2 hour stint, but I'm not complaining. I got slippers, a better blanket, food on actual plates instead of in a foil tray, and my seat held your legs up as well as tipping back to got to sleep. I actually fell asleep during take-off with my seat completely upright but that's just me!
Anyway, I arrived and got picked up at the airport. I met some other new teachers as well as some that have been here a while then got taken to my apartment. I
My bed!
Peeky Owl, Owlface, Bernard and Rupert making themselves at home.had been alone for about 2 minutes, staring at my suitcases, when Katharine from across the hall came over. She had been here an hour, had showered, but was now staring at her suitcases too. So before I'd unpacked a thing I ended up having a chat for an hour! Luckily we get on very well as I've now spent about 16 hours a day with her on average this week! I did some unpacking when she popped back to hers; the important things of course: cards from home, teddy bears, tea bags and chocolate. I then realised how much space I have and wished I'd shipped out more stuff to fill it!
The next person I met was Mr. Kim. He is one of my new favourite people! Me and Katharine decided to go out for dinner and he came running out of his security hut asking us for our names and telephone numbers to put on his contact sheet. He looks after our building by checking who everybody is that tries to come in! I do have a photo with him on Katharine's camera so I'll steal it off her to upload at some point. He works
on the same shift as 'Manager Kim' - not confusing AT all!! :-s So me and Katharine went for dinner, got lost on the way home, but managed to buy nectarines, tomatoes, toilet roll and chocolate milk in the process :-) We also popped to eye up the gym and swimming pool - old fashioned, but fab!
I woke up on Tuesday bragging about how I was completely not affected by jet lag as I felt fine and had a normal 8 hours sleep. I realised later in the week that I was completely wrong about this as the tiredness kept hitting me in waves. We had a lazy morning then Ian arrived on our floor so we all went out to tackle the subway and go sightseeing! The subway is exactly the same as the tube in London, yet we somehow kept getting on the wrong train and having to get off and back on the way we had come! They are also lovely: very spacious, clean and with little tunes played to tell you when a train is coming. We went into 'downtown Seoul' and walked along one of the streams in the centre, having a little
paddle as we went :-)
Later, we got back on the subway (and didn't go the wrong way this time, although we must've looked confused as a Korean man asked if we needed help) to go to Itaewon for dinner. We met Yvonne and Bruce who are both music teachers and had tapas then went to the bar and had a few drinks. Yvonne introduced us to 'Soju', which is an incredibly cheap but lethal rice wine. It costs about 50p a bottle in the supermarket and gets you sloshed (apparently!) It was more expensive in the bar of course ;-) We met some crazy Korean people, who were very, very drunk! One of them spilt beer all over Katharine twice so she demanded he buy both me and her a vodka and coke each..........what we actually got was a pint of vodka with ice! It took a good ten minutes to get 2 glasses and a very small can of coke to go with it, but we eventually got through it!
At the end of the night we decided to get a taxi as it was absolutely teeming it down! However, everyone had the same idea and
it was impossible so we decided to walk. We got lost 'big time', got 2 umbrellas donated to us by a lovely man in a shop (too late to make a difference to the state of our clothes, hair and shoes), then finally flagged down a taxi when we decided we were properly lost. Turns out we were about 100m from our house! Idiots! He basically drove down the equivalent of our driveway to drop us off. He was so lovely though and refused to take any money. We found it hilarious!
Since then I have only got lost once more and it was for about 5 minutes in the backstreets near our house, which are a bit like a rabbit warren, so I think all in all I've not done too badly!
Wednesday and Thursday were quite lazy days. We went in our swimming pool, ate Korean barbeque, visited the Rose and Crown pub and the Irish bar (you can take the Brit out of England..........), bought coathangers, ate sausage bread in an extremely nice Patisserie, had drinks in the 'French Quarter' of town, and had a talk at school from the 'Seoul Global Centre'. This was
my first time at the school so it was quite exciting, and I learnt about general life in Seoul and who to call if I need any help (reassurance for you there Mum). The Korean barbeque was delicious. You choose your meat then they cook it in front of you on a little BBQ in the middle of your table. You then eat it with all the sides they bring you for free, like kimchi (pickled spicy cabbagey stuff that is very traditional), vegetable type things and rice.
The Patisserie was so good that we went again on Friday for a treat after our medical. I had more sausage bread, and olive bread. It was amazing!! It tasted even better than it normally would as we had to starve ourselves before our medical (yes, not eating breakfast is starving myself!!) The medical itself was bizarre. We had to give blood and urine, have our blood pressure taken, have a chest x-ray, have a hearing test, eye test, colour blindness test and have our height, weight and chest size measured. All this just to get my Alien Registration Card so I can live in the country. Not sure why they
need quite so much information, although I suppose it's in keeping with the fingerprint they took on their machine at the airport! Anyway, it was all very efficient and the hospital itself was like a hotel. We moved from room to room being prodded and poked and measured, with comfy seats to sit on between tests. The only problem I had was having a wee under pressure! I'd been worried about it all morning, which probably didn't help, but I got there and produced the required amount :-)
That evening we went up Seoul tower and looked out over the city. We were there as it got dark so saw it in daylight, and then as all the lights came on. It gets dark quite quickly here so it was really cool to watch. We then looked at the padlock trees, where people write messages of love on a padlock and put them on trees. Another 'cute' thing to do in Korea....they did look quite cool though! We had dinner in a Thai restaurant (yum!) and some more drinks in a bar where you sit with your feet in a jacuzzi type bath thing - again, very strange!
Guest room
Please come and visit me! One of the highlights of my week had to be the Saturday morning shop. It was an early start but it was totally worth it as we went to 'Homeplus', which is basically Tesco, but far bigger than any Tesco I've ever seen. It has 4 floors, yet I only managed one of those in the 2 hours we were allocated, and I spent £180! I was still unpacking my purchases on Sunday evening. Me and Katharine decided we should apply for 'supermarket sweep' if there is a new series as we were amazing with our trolleys even when balanced with a clothes drying rack, ironing board and laundry basket on the top. I got no food so am going on a 'food shopping trip' tomorrow so I can stop living on Special K, nectarines, chcolate milk and eating out!
After the shopping trip we went out for lunch at a Mexican place. Turned out it is owned by one of the parents at the school, who was in there with one of the other teachers. She introduced us and we ended up wth free nachos, so our 'snack' turned into a 'meal'. It was really good though and
Dudey's picture
Harry's lovely picture of a giant stuck on the fridge :-) I might try to visit when she's next in there again ;-) We went out for more drinks that night after a quick tour of the 'foreign supermarkets' from one of the exisitng teachers. It was a late one - bed at 5am - but I'm still blaming the jet lag for me being tired at school today!
On Sunday we visiited a temple and saw the changing of the guards. It feels really weird being in a temple with the tall modern buildings in the background, and the guards were scary as they weren't allowed to smile. The girls then made me get my nails done. I have never had my nails done in my life but it seems it's the done thing here, and really cheap! The girls then told me off as I came back to my apartment and did 2 hours of cleaning then severely chipped some polish off whilst gluing my flip flops back together that got destroyed in the rain. Woops! I take it I'm just not made for 'having my nails done'.
So today was my first day at school. Nothing to really report as it was just 'this is how
Cards
All my lovely cards from all the lovely people at home! we do it' kind of meetings. I am now on a health kick though as I feel really frumpy having eaten out loads and not exercised. So I went down to the gym tonight and realised how much harder that is going to be in this country. The sweat has nowhere to go in the humid air so it just clings to your body....I felt minging, but at least I might get thin again ;-)
I will take some pictures of my classroom and do a school based update at some point, when it's not quite so barren and bare looking!
And finally..............
Things I have learnt this week:
1) Taxi drivers do not have knowledge of the local area. The school gave us cards with our address on, and the school address on, so we don't have to tackle the language barrier. This is fine, except that the taxi drivers still don't know where we're goign half the time, despite also having sat nav's! They should go to see how it's done in London ;-)
2) Everybody lied!! There ARE fat people in Korea....and tall ones! I don't know where they shop as the
KFC
Yes we did..... we didn't mean to, it just happened! clothes are very small, but I see chubby people quite frequently so they must shop somewhere! I might follow one to see where she goes to buy her clothes......
3) They didn't lie about the small feet. You can however get size 5's in some shops so I'm OK, but you have no chance for size 6!
4) The Korean people really do love cats. Everytime I get a text message on my mobile it has kittens at the top and there's a TV programme called "Must Love Cats" on one of my favourite channels!
5) You have to be quiet on public transport, i.e. buses and the subway. We got told off for talking too loudly and have had some very dirty looks.
6) The Koreans tend to use codes on doors so there are no keys! Everytime I approach my apartment I reach inside my handbag and then remember I don't need to! I'm hoping I get a key to something so I can hang my owl keyring on it!
7) Wine is very expensive here and they rarely have rose! :-( However, a girl who has been here a year told me
about a supermarket that has it really cheap in big buckets at the back of the shop when the labels have been damaged. Who drinks the labels?! :-) I must pay a visit soon.
8) Cocktails are quite cheap so I've drank many a mojito!
I'm sure I still have loads more to learn!
Claire xxxx
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Carly Warly Woo
non-member comment
You are NOT fat :P
Clairey, lovely to hear you are getting along well! Sound like fun so far and the house looks lavely. Don't know if it my pooter or yours but I canne see you photos, sob. Love and hugs, I hope your first week at school goes well! x x x