Sunday, July 30, 2006

Long time no blog!

Fancy meeting you here!

Sorry I've been so lame on the blog lately... I've had a couple of busy weeks! Since mud fest it has been the run up to the summer holidays (which I am on now)!!!

Its really nce to be not in school on Monday morning. So no case of the Mondays! In fact, there'll be not case of the Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursday(mornings)s!!! What a shame only a full day on Friday :)

Well, I've pretty much managed to waste my whole holiday by not visiting any new places. But I have been relaxing which as been nice.

It has been quite hard to plan anything due to the rain. Its bee the rainy season for the past couple of weeks here, so it rains really hard for about 70% of the days for about 3 weeks. This year has been been pretty bad. A number of people have been killed in landslides and stuff, which is not nice.

The rain has been so heavy that the stream down the road actually became a river!!!

Heres a couple of piccies.

There... in the picture... you might be able to see the little thing in river? Not to sure right now but thats a little sign that stands on the raised decked area... thats a lot more water than usual!

If anyone wants it 'll send you a little video, gives a good feel of the rain.
This is the walk way under a bridge that people us to go to the park... guess the park was pretty empty that day.

Oooops!!! forgot to turn that one!. Thats Yongsan electronics market. its prety cool, there is a floor for mobile communications, cameras, TVs, games... there are about 7 floors in all. Quite a strange place, cos all of the stalls on each floor are pretty much identical! You can buy the same stuff at each shop. How do they make money!?

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Pictures YO!










Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Long weekend... today feels like a Monday

I wondered today while lying in bed during my lunch break why I was so tired. I came to the conclusion that it was the lack of sleep over the weekend.

On Friday night I played some poker with the guys in my room, which went on for quite some time! Then after three hours of sleep we set off for Deachon… Mud Festival!! Mud Fest was a day long party, punctuated by getting muddy, tripping over peoples shoes in the sea and beer runs! I had an absolute whale of a time. We got to the hotel (which was really quite nice) some time at about midday, that’s when I met the G.I’s. Kelly and Doc, good chaps, but not too clever at getting charcoal briquettes to light in their BBQ! I gave them a hand. The rest of the day was spent trying to find the group of people in the masses that were on the beach. It really was foreigners central, I think about 70% of all foreigners in Korea were at Mud fest! Well, it seemed that way.

So the mud… they brought it in from up the road, the beach it self was a normal beach, nice and sandy. They had a mud slide, a mud cage, mud wrestling, mud this and mud that! No small wonder why it’s called Mud Fest. I spent most of the day with the people who I arrived with. But after the awesome fireworks display I was a little groggy and tired from the day and the night before, so I headed back to the hotel. Luckily enough I bumped into Doc and he told me where the other guys were partying! GS Party! GS25 is a 24hr corner store with seats outside, often a hotspot for parties (I’ll take a picture of the one in Mansu-6-Dong so you know what I mean!). At about 4 in the morning we went back to the hotel where we all were staying and had a BBQ, the briquettes were still going!!! Those G.I’s knew what they are doing, they drove down with a van of imported beer and food, and I was welcome to as much of it as I fancied! So I finished up partying at about 6am.

We left at about 3 the next day to stand on a train for 3 hours of pain! Lucky I had ‘Jay and Silent Bob’ to take my mind off the 2hr call of nature!

Yesturday just chilled and thought about how good it was not to be in school on a Monday. Saw Layer Cake, which is quite good and cooked up a chili!

Oooooooh it makes me hungry thinking that I have to wait for another 2 hours b4 I can eat it! Must remember to get a new chopping board and Tupperware on the way home…

Take it easy

dx

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

the whistles go......

Had a very long weekend, only because I didn’t get much sleep! On Friday night one of my work mates invited us to go to a baseball game! My very first! It was Incheon SK against Busan Bears (I think). It was pretty exciting. The game has some good qualities like cricket… the anticipation of each pitch is similar. I was pretty tense because the team we were supporting, Incheon SK, was behind for most of the game but was playing really well, but went another couple of scores behind. But then they sorted it out with a Grand Slam, a home run with the bases loaded! It was pretty cool to watch.

That ended at about 11pm, baseball is LONG! So we hit a bar for a few nice beers in Juan.

I had decided to go into Itewon on Saturday to get the spices I needed to do more cooking, and it happened to coincide with the New Zealand Australia Rugby match. Went in with Conner and his mate Josh and got a CURRY before the match. Found a place to watch it which was a nice bar but for the fact that it was sooo packed that the air con was not doing anything and there was me in my polyester Spurs shirt dripping away! Met some really cool people…. Brb gotta mail one of them to get his piccies!

Just mailed but forgot to ask for the piccies… re-tard!

Anyway, Saturday was pretty good, and Sunday was pretty relaxed, generally chilled out around the apartment, was pretty tired from the lack of sleep that has doggy me for the last month or so. Too hot, too noisy, too bright, too loud! I’ve actually forgotten what I did on Sunday for most of the day. Oh yeah, I cooked and chilled.

Got phone teaching tonight :(

At least there is free food, getting the really expensive pizza again! Then tomorrow its Chinese (faux Chinese!) and I have heard that on Thursday, one of the parents of one of my students wants to take all of the staff out for dinner! Her son recently got 99/100 in a speach contet at his Private School! Good good!


I’ll add pictures later.

dx

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Its over!


Had my last open class today. It was the lower standard class. It didnt go quite as well as the other class but that was really expected. My boss was in the room for both, I think that really gave her and insight into ust how ar behind some of the kids are.

Its a shame, mainly for the parents of the clever kids in the lower class, because I often have to spend up to about 15 minutes stopping a kid cry just because he only got one cookie while most of the kids were quite happy without a cookie at all! It kinds made me wonder why we dont simply get rid of one or two of the kids... but then again the kids are where the money comes from. So, I thought hows about moving some of the kids around so that the ones that have potential can get into a good atmosphere? Nah... can't do that cos the parents of the ids in the higher class will moan. Oh well...

Like I say Open Class is over for me. Elaine has two next week, Brian has one more. Only one of the Korean teachers has also finished. One of the poor ladies has to do one then go straight into another on the same day!

On the other hand... heres something to smile about!!

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

One down...

.. one to go!

Just finished one of my open classes. It went really well. I was a little worried about it but in the end it went pretty well. Strange that Iwas worried about the cleverer class, but when I practised the 'game' with them they got a little bored and didnt want to play. But with the parents in the room they really wanted to impress them!

I even got a little clap at the end!

:)

Monday, July 03, 2006

STRESS!

Oooooh... its been a tough couple of weeks.

Pretty homesick right now. Its been bad news day after day.

First off it was 'Open Class' when the parents come and watch me in the class room for only 10 minutes. But i have to come up wih some stuff to do with the kids. And my co-workers really didnt let me know what I should be doing. So i planned and it got a test run and my boss said it was crap, so i had two days to come up with, make materials for and practice with the kids. Last day of practice is tomorrow and the final run is going to be on wednesday then again on thursday. That had me in work til 9 on friday night. Then the world cup had me up til late on both friday and saturday.

It was a sad occaision. I was in Itewon where there are loads of foreigners. So I felt quite at home with a load of Brits. I wore my England shirt, and by the end of the night random people were coming up to me and hugging me cos of the result and the sour face that I obviously had on my face :(

that means I lose the sweepstake as well. I felt really bad after that game. But still every 5 minutes I thought about Open Class, so all sunday I was :(

Went to see Superman. OMG Korean cinemas are sooo loud! I was a little sensitive from the late nights and the number of Coronas I'd had during the football, but you really get a ringing in your ears!

Well... CZ is ready to go after about 15 minutes of waiting...

PREPARE TO FIGHT!
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