Monday, 27 August 2007

I'm boken

I apologise for not updating my blog the last few weeks. I was in hospital with a broken hand and after that I just didn't want to do much.

I will do my best to get a blog out this week, but it all depends on how it goes with my notes. The problem is that my right hand is broken and I need that one to write with and make notes on paper as I walk around.

Either way, you will know what happens, even if it is just a very short little blog entry.


*Please note that the statements in this Blog are not intended to make anyone look bad. I do not look down on Koreans. I'm merely describing how amusing I sometimes find people and I am mostly describing it to other westerners. Feel free to come to South Africa and tell the world how crazy we are because heaven knows, we are.

Thursday, 09 August 2007

Two Weeks - Part Two

(I was not in the mood to make sure my grammar spelling and other related things were correct, so get over it)

Thursday and again, on the bus I noticed how scared Koreans are of me. Maybe they are just extremely shy, but either way it is strange. When I am on the bus, sitting on a double seat I can confidently lounge. There is about a 95% change that no one will sit next to me, even if it means them standing. What do they think will happen? I am sure they will not catch Whiteness from me. I am not going to start talking to them. I really don’t get it.

On Friday my long intended trip to get my computer fixed finally happened. This, needles to say, meant Yongsan in Seoul. I think I might actually be getting used to Yongsan and I can kind of find my way around now. I might also have cracked the code of getting back to the Express Bus Terminal without having to do a trip of Seoul first. I’m quite confident that Platform 1 at Yongsan is the one that will get me going in the right direction. Unfortunately I only fond this one after going half way to Incheon and being stuck on a platform for almost an hour

There is on thing to note about the side trip. The train was near empty, so I took the closes seat, which happened to be one of the seats reserved for the elderly and other people in need of special seats. The old man across from me then felt the need to tell me that I need to move so that all the other non existing people can sit in the reserved seats. Honestly, I appreciate the idea and I will gladly move then expected, but don’t get stupid on me now.

On Saturday I basically did nothing. I sat watching TV and clarified what I need to do to get organised. It is so nice not having to work weird hours every day, I feel like I can now plan to live a little.

I know I haven’t been here that long, but I would expect to have figured out the traffic lights but now. Surely an intersection with traffic light to control it can’t be that difficult to do. Why do I need to stand for 5 minutes just to cross the road? Even then I have to worry about being run over. I find it fascinating how shocked people can be when I cross the road before the light turns green, but they don’t bat an eyelid when the cars completely ignore the signals.

Paris Baguette sells doughnuts filled with red beans. I think it is great, but most Westerners don’t seem to like it. Apart from being a bit to sweet, I don’t really understand why not.

As I was sitting in PB, a group of young people were forming at the tables next to me and they appeared to be doing bible study. It is really interesting how often I see people doing Bible study in places like coffee shops.

Last week, the one following the on I just spoke about, I basically did nothing. I worked on my stuff for the Holiday school and that was about the extent of what I did.

That ends part two of my two week blog and what useless things I got up to.


*Please note that the statements in this Blog are not intended to make anyone look bad. I do not look down on Koreans. I'm merely describing how amusing I sometimes find people and I am mostly describing it to other westerners. Feel free to come to South Africa and tell the world how crazy we are because heaven knows, we are.

Two Weeks - Part One

(I was not in the mood to make sure my grammar spelling and other related things were correct, so get over it)

Partly because I was lazy and partly I forgot, I didn’t do a blog last week. Therefore I will be doing two weeks in the live of Otto here today.

Monday the 25th arrived and I was all psyched up about my last week of school, wondering what on earth I was going to do with them. I arrived at school with half the children dressed in normal clothes. I didn’t worry too much about it. In normal fashion, if it was to effect me in any way then I would be told well in advance by about 5 minutes.

It turns out that my only class for the day was canceled and that I was to be sent home for the rest of the week. However, in accordance with the Korean way of sharing as much food as possible, I was not to go home before having lunch with the few remaining teacher at school. We went to this great place that serve cold noodles. I need to find out where it is so that I can go back some time.

On Tuesday, just before lunch, I went to go get Dumplings from my favourite take-away place. Afterwards I went to Dunkin Donuts to get a coffee and work on my plans for the holiday school. While talking to one of the teacher at school, it emerged that they would also be doing holiday school for English and that they will be doing the reading, writing and grammar part. All that I was expected to do was conversation.

This led me to think that what I have been doing in class up to now is not really what was expected. After thinking about this I decided to teach the students more about English Culture and things like politeness. I will leave the grammar to the other teachers and I will get the children to listen and speak, as is expected of me.

Wednesday I wanted to go to Seoul, but before that I needed to make sure I had money in the bank. I was planning on making a sizable purchase, you see? Unfortunately the money hadn’t been paid in yet, so I just went in to Icheon town. It seemed like a good idea to go find the nice big umbrella and gym shoes I was planning on getting. Shoes here are so cheap! Of course I also need a shoe rack now that I have extra shoes. My closet is just not made for holing things the way I want them, and hence the extra space.

I saw an interesting restaurant a few days back and thought I would have a look. It is called Puffin Café. Turns out it is an Italian Restaurant. It was quite full, but I found a table and sat down. The first things I noticed is that the menu had English descriptions. Wait, let me rephrase, perfect English descriptions. It’s amazing and so nice for a place such as Icheon.

The Puffin café is a charming little place with photographs under the table glass of all the places the owner has been. The shelves and the walls were covered with all the crap he collected on his travel and you can spend hours staring at everything.

By a happy coincidence hours is exactly what you will need if you go there. There is only one chef and one waitress. First come first served and I waited for what seemed an hour and a half for my food. Next time I am brining work or a book of someone along to help pass the time.

I am happy to say, however, that the food was worth the wait. It was amazing. I’m not just saying this because I was in the mood for Western food. It was great any way you look at it, and here is a interesting little thing about the place. A 300ml Coke cost 3000 won and a 500 ml beer only 2500 won. Great, isn’t it?

I really need to get my arse in gear and learn Korean. Even without it I eventually managed to buy myself multi vitamins.

End of Part One


*Please note that the statements in this Blog are not intended to make anyone look bad. I do not look down on Koreans. I'm merely describing how amusing I sometimes find people and I am mostly describing it to other westerners. Feel free to come to South Africa and tell the world how crazy we are because heaven knows, we are.