Blogs from Incheon, South Korea, Asia - page 8

WOW I just logged on her to actually sort out my blog that hasn't been touched in YEARS and I found this saved blog! It was written in the moment so why not publish it?! (FYI it was written in Spring 2009 during my first year teaching in Incheon, South Korea) OK I realise it's been a few months since I wrote one of these and lots has happened and im sure to miss out an awful lot. But I will try to stick to the stuff you might want to know. SPRING IS HERE!!! Well actually it's almost summer now I think, Spring was very short, I almost didnt notice the weather slowly warming up and the new shoots on the trees. Paddy's day was one of the first big events in a while, now ... read more

Saturday was a bit of an adventure. Several other teachers and I decided to take a trip to the beach in Incheon. Why we decided to do this I'm not sure, but at the time it seemed like an amazing idea. Actually, it was an awesome idea, however, the weather was NOT awesome. It was freezing and rainy, and I was definitely under dressed. Besides that though it was fun. Out of Ilsan we took a taxi to a carnival in Incheon. The area that we first went to was completely empty. There was no one at the carnival and I understood why. It was so cold, and because we were right on the water the wind was really strong. We decided to enjoy the carnival as long as we could. Each ride cost money so ... read more

So the past month has been a hectic one at school, rushing through books to get them finished before the end of the school year. This didn't mean it was time for school holidays though.. oh no.. we started straight back at school the following monday. Graduation was a massive deal for our KINDERGARTEN kids, they were so excited and to be honest it was decked out far better than my University graduation! The parents were so proud of their kids and some even brought banners (that didnt really make sense... come out fighting??) to cheer their kids one. 1 of the graduating classes was my responsible class and i will admit i got a bit teary at one stage, when they were collecting thier certficates and then the photo montage of their past 3 years ... read more

I've decided that I should blog these past couple weeks in my life although it's been fairly mundane around here. But the people around me are all having what I like to call the "quarter-life crisis"...Victoria and Heidi rightfully so because they're approaching this age. Greg, well...he's maybe suffering more of a "Fuck, I'm almost 30 and I've done nothing with me life" crisis. First, I'd like to say that I sort of came to Korea hoping that I'd find some people who weren't so panicky about what you're supposed to be doing at whatever age - rogues 20-something year olds living a life that society hasn't necessarily dictated for them. However, it seems that even if these were the type of people they were prior to coming to Korea, the dismal and unfavourable conditions of ... read more

So this was to be my first Christmas spent away from home and I was expecting it to be slightly weird. Korea isnt a christian place although you would never know that if you looked around the sky at night (giant red crooses illiminate the skies!). Christmas at school was quite good, i guess it helps having kids around that get all excited about anything different happening, we had a singing competition and you would have thought the Korean teachers won a prise for best class they they put in SO MUCH effort, i had one teacher interrupting my lessons to remind them of the songs and get extra things going. So the singing and dancing was good, we had dress up santa competition.. i have a great picture of one of my kids wearing eyeliner ... read more