Blogs from Cheongju, South Korea, Asia - page 3

Dear Blog Readers, We begin this week with news that has reached us from England that the Radio 1 Big Weekend will be held in Carlisle this year! Laura is gobsmacked that her hometown should be represented on such a colossal scale with acts such as the Black Eyed Peas, Foo Fighters, and Boeun Girl’s High School favourite, Lady Gaga will be performing. Laura’s co-teacher was visibly stunned at the news. As one person said, it’s probably the most exciting thing that has happened to Carlisle since the Roman’s invaded. Laura’s new hair cut has also been a talking point this week. Apparently some of the teachers at her school have been enquiring where she got it cut. However, my favourite comment has been made by a little girl at one of her elementary schools, who ... read more

Dear Blog Readers, Last week’s blog sparked some interesting discussions. In particular was the stalkerish nature of the high school girls, and specifically, the “What is your blood type?” question. Chef Chris told me that people have matched blood type with personality traits. I decided to investigate further and found this description for my blood type: “They are very studious type of person, and will try not to hurt anyone with their words or speak unnecessarily. They are decisive, but not thoughtless with their decisions. They like to follow the latest trends and dress up, but not in a flashy or gaudy way. Their career ends up commonly as an accountant, librarian, economist, novelist, computer programmer, gossip columnist.” Is it me or does this seem worryingly accurate? They could have replaced the blurb with, “Very boring ... read more

Things are coming to a close here in Korea. It's officially been ONE year since Jake and I landed in Seoul. It's funny to think about how nervous we were about teaching and training, and living in Korea. Five of our friends have left in the past 3 weeks! It's terrible and crazy that everyone's leaving at the same time! But we all came in together too and that was fun. We've gotten a couple new teachers as well, and that's been fun getting to know some new faces. After I leave every teacher at CDI will be male. The girl students aren't too excited about it. It's quite strange thinking about leaving here. It's definitely a mix of emotions. I've decided every traveling experience turns out to be the same. You get excited to leave ... read more

Somehow it's almost March, 2011. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one. Over here in Korea we've been hoping and waiting for things to slow down. I'm realizing now that they're not going to and I need to get my stuff together! I officially have 4 weeks left on my contract. I'm still trying to process that as well. January intensives finished and we thought things would slow down but for the last 3 weeks we've been saying bye to people heading back home and preparing to welcome new teachers. This is definitely some kind of record: Jake and I haven't left Cheongju since Lacey was here visiting at Christmas!! YIKES!!! It's been nice for our wallets and we've gotten plenty of rest but as the weather gets nicer, I'm itching to get ... read more

Dear Blog Readers, I’m very confused. I’m not really sure what is going on. In fact, nobody really seems to know what’s going on. I think the students are coming in on Friday then we have a week of lessons then they have a week off then they have a week back and then the school year ends. I think whoever made up the months of the year actually forgot about February. Firstly, the spelling of the month is weird, that ‘r’ after the ‘b’ is almost as subtle as spelling weird as wired. Secondly, I think they did a calendar trial run for one year and got to the end and thought, “Damn, we’re missing 28 days, or is it 29 days?” Then it may have dawned on them, “How many days have the other ... read more