Glad you liked the last update Linda!
Sorry the response took so long but I was hoping I would have something interesting to report from Cheusock (Korean thanksgiving) but I don’t! It turns out it’s like Christmas Day at home—everything’s closed! But my friend came and visited me here in Hamyang and we…did nothing much since that’s about all you can do here! The city’s tiny! With nothing but neurobang and pool to do but there’ pretty much everything you could need to buy. There’s also a street-ish market where they sell everything and is really cool! And there’s a cool park with lots of lily ponds and lotus fields and a little man-made lake that’s really pretty and there are mini soccer pitches, badminton and vollyball nets. There’s also a foreign teachers community here, which is a bit weird considering how small this city is! But it’s cool because I only work 3 hours a day so it can get a little boring doing…nothing. Having said that I’ve started drawing and have only just finished my obsession with Desperate Housewives and some of the other girls who are here as TaLK scholars too found an aerobics class which I’ve started in the morning and evening. It’s something to do and exercise! Woop woop! And the woman who does it seems to like me because I’m white! I got a free pair of socks and she keeps helping me during the class. With regards Ultimate here, it pretty much doesn’t exist this far south. The only thing I think I’m going to be doing is a random hat tournie every now and again, which sucks!
I teach in two different schools; my main school has 70 kids and some really nice teachers, even though they can’t really talk to me much but they usually make the effort, which is really nice! My biggest class in that school is about 30 kids and it’s my first and second grade class and they can be pretty crazy…most of the time! But according to my co-teacher that’s not my problem! I was told last Monday that I’m not supposed to shout at them because they get scared because they don’t know what I’m saying but I’m okay with that because I can leave that up to my co-teacher and I’ll just play games with them! And run away from them when they tickle me. They cornered me outside the canteen once and attacked me, all the other teachers who walked by thought it was really funny…it wasn’t! In the third and fourth grader class I have there I’ve made 4 of the boys do lines, which was fun! My smaller school only has 30 kids so my classes are smaller and I have no co-teacher but some of them are really nice! My favourite student is Sunny in first grade. She’s really smart and usually pays attention in my classes. Her and her friend Jenny used to come into class half an hour early and get me to read to them while they pointed at the pictures and said the English words when they knew them, after that phase they like to climb on me. One of them would jump into my arms and the other one would get jealous and would try climbing onto my back…that’s not fun! And the fifth and sixth grade class in that school are so smart! I’m going through the script of the film The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe with them because they have the DVD in the school and it turns out one of the 6th graders brothers is in Dublin at the moment studying English! I thought that was a wee bit crazy because most Koreans don’t even know Ireland exists! One of the boys in that class gave me a key ring and one of my second graders gave me four highlighters, it was a bit odd but really cute! And in my smaller school one of the 6th graders mother’s comes into my classes to help me and she gave me peppers last week and apples and peach juice before that. I feel like I owe her back….maybe I’ll get her some fruit on Thursday…fruit is a big gift here, if you go to someone’s house you bring them fruit.
At the weekends I usually go somewhere and meet up with friends from orientation. My first weekend after teaching I went to Pusan, the second largest city in Korea. It was really nice and it was good to hear English again! Having said that we were really surprised to hear so much English! But there were loads of backpackers and the like there, especially on Haeundae Beach, the most famous beach in the country. The water was really nice! And not cold at all! We stayed the night in a Jimjibang, which only cost about three euro and was a roof for the night! It’s basically a bathhouse. You all bathe and shower together and then you go upstairs usually to sleep on the stone floor…not very comfortable but cheap! In Korean tradition everything is done on the floor, which is why you take your shoes off before going into peoples houses. So in traditional restaurants you sit on the floor and leave your shoes at the door and back in the day everyone would have slept on the floor too. On Sunday I went to the fish market which was indoors, which I didn’t expect and myself and my friend picked a fish from a tank for dinner which was really cool because I’ve never done that before! I’ve also spent a weekend in Daegu which is the third largest city but it’s mainly known for clubs, bars and shopping and since I was there for my friends 21st it worked out well. Actually that was the first weekend I went clubbing here and it was great fun mainly because I wasn’t felt up half as much as I am back home because I’m white! The down side was though that they can smoke in the clubs which isn’t good but we get passes that! I also visited a friend in his city for a weekend too and it’s huge compared to wee small Hamyang, his place is big enough to have suburbs and city buses!! On the way home on the train I met a really nice man who speaks English and gave me a lift to the bus station and then gave me his number to I could call him if I missed the bus, it was really nice. And last weekend I went to Jinju for a day, it’s the biggest city close to me and it’s only an hour away. Having said that the only thing to see there really is the fortress but it was still pretty cool, if a bit hilly and full of those steep steps the Koreans are so in to! It’s a big park with a museum and loads of random temples and gazebos. It was cool. When we were in one of the gazebos some man came up to us and insisted on taking our photo and then insisted on a photo of us with his daughter and he then proceeded to tell us about her English abilities while the poor girl stood there, it was really random but really nice! The staring and talking about me because I’m a foreigner can get really annoying sometimes but most of the time being a foreigner here is really nice, they see me coming a mile off and don’t expect me to speak any Korean so when I come out with the little bit I have they practically give me a medal!
So that’s all for now…I think! But I’ll update again soon…when I have something to say! And good luck in Bologna!! I’m so jealous!!!
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