T'has been a while since i last shared...

Since my last post i have been paid, been to Seoul and started playing football.

Getting paid was a relief. 1,800,000Won in the bank. The days prior to getting this cash injection were precarious to say the least. i had to count out the equivalent of 2.5p coins to pay for my lunch some days - it's funny on reflection. I hope now that it will not be an issue again as i'm now on a better wage than my harder working Korean peers so there's no excuse.

Looking back on the trip to Seoul much of it is cloudy in a tequila haze. It had been my intention to go and do some sights in the capital but in the end i spent every night in a bar or club - good times though.
We left for Seoul on the Saturday going on the KTX high-speed train. I tried to hide my excitement as on the inside i was still that young loser of a wee chunky train spotter that gets really excited about travelling on a train that goes 300km/h - i hid it well i hope. It only took 1.5hours. When we got into Seoul we headed straight for the hostel where we were staying. Previous to this trip i had heard a few horror stories about staying in hostels so i wasn't sure what to expect. It turned out to be really nice. Clean rooms, no people who ruined the whole hostel experience for everyone else and a cracking shower. Once we had seen the rooms we went for some grub and had a look in the Downtown area. Then headed for some drinkies at night. We travelled to the Itaewon area as there were many watering holes to from which to choose. This night slowly disintegrated after many a tipple. We spent quite a lot of the night in a bar where G.I.s congregate. We also bumped into a Dutch guy Michael who at first we thought was American but just turned out to have perfect English - better English than me in fact. One of the G.I.s had got wind that i was Scottish and felt compelled to come over and tell his surname is Burns. I put on my pretend impressed face as he was twice the width of me. Once he had laboured the point of us being 'brothers' he bought me booze. Lots of booze. Purely 'cause i'm Scottish. After a long drawn out 24 years it's starting to pay off being a Scot.
The second day i went with Ally and Katie to see The Korean Culture Palace (Korea's Buckingham Palace). It...was...good. Was very muddy to walk through because of the snow but still interesting. We then went a wander in the local area taking in stalls and shops. We then headed back to the hostel where i met Tom and a fellow hosteler, Erin, who was flying solo in Seoul. The three of us got boozed up...a plenty. Later on we met up with Ally, Katie and the extras and a Zen Bar. Oh dear. Tequila shots only 1,900W each. There were quite a few consumed. Drinks, photo's, questionable dancing and drinks. Somehow, we ended up in a Korean guy's car (named Gun). I'll spare you the details Mum but on reflection probably wasn't the greatest idea of the weekend.
The last day arrived with a nice juicy hangover. We decided that to kill time before the train we'd have ANOTHER wee booze. We met more people at a bar Gecko's and eventually decided to intentionally miss our train and opt for a later one. This seemed a perfectly good drunken idea at the time until once at the station the only option to get back to Daegu was a 4hour journey - yum!
On a whole, Seoul is very similar to Daegu in terms of appearance but it was still good fun. I'm sure i'll be back before i leave.

Can you believe i get paid for this...

One month down...

As of tomorrow, i will have been here a month. It doesn't feel like a month in terms of work but in other respects it's been ages.

Since my last blog, i haven't really done anything of note. Running quite a bit - aiming for a half-marathon in March in Busan i think. I've been eating alot of BBQ - the 1st video i posted on this blog. I am now a official Alien in South Korea complete with Alien card, bank account and mobile phone. Now all i'm waiting for is the next pay. I got paid on the 8th but only for the days i worked in December so i now need to wait 'til Feb 1oth for Janurary's money. Once that comes in 1st stop is the Guitar shops - woop woop!!

The teaching is fairly non-complex now, i finally know what i'm doing and what is and isn't expected of me. There's some of the kids i hate, some are borderline retards and some you can easily hold a conversation with. I've started question time with them at the ends of lessons. It's always the same 3 questions:

"Why...come...Korea?"
"Tall....how?" - "Basketball?"
"Teacher Girlfriend?"

Ask me something different for a change kiddies!!!

The way they get your attention is absolutely mind-numbing. They just constantly say one thing 'til you acknowledge them - "Teecha, teecha, teecha, teecha, teecha......................." SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP! Wheest! Also, i'm sure i get sworn at in Korean many times each day when i'm shouting at them for not shutting the hell up so i tell them, say whatever you like, i can't understand you whether it's Korean OR English coming out your mouth. Also, it's hilarious to the kids when we speak Korean to them.


On Wednesday 13th there was a gathering of most of the non-Korean folks from our area of Daegu, Chilgok. It was a fairly good night. Me and Tom joined up with the others a bit later at WaBar. To be honest the whole affair was a bit cliquey at first and we felt the uncomfortable - everyone looks up, stops talking for a second, then turns back to who they were talking to. Eventually other people acknowledged our being and we met some new people.
Then it was on to The Beatles bar. This place is awesome. You can play any music that can be found on YouTube. About 25 of the 'Group Outing' descended upon Beatles bar which made it a tight squeeze. This place is about a third of the size of Nice n Sleazy in Glasgow.


Then lastnight, Saturday, Myself, Tom and Jeff headed into Downtown. Watched Liverpool scrape another point, then joined up with Whities again. However, the most random thing that has happened to me so far is meeting other Scottish folk. I expected to meet Scottish people eventually, i'm here with two of them, but lastnight this guy had heard me talking and asked where i was from. 'Kilmarnock' i said.
'You kiddin'? I'm from Irvine.'
The short conversation was alcohol fuelled but we covered all the important topics. Turns out he's a Kilmarnock fan too. So picture the scene. Standing in the middle of Downtown Daegu, South Korea, Adam from Kilmarnock and Stuart from Irvine talking about whether or not Calderwood is a good choice, should Jefferies have left etc. Also, i vaguely remember looking at my watch, subtracting the 9 hours, realising it was about 6pm UK time and then wondering if we'd humped Motherwell or not. Anyway, the whole thing was just bizzare!!

Then once we'd stumbled upon another bar, again, a guy heard my accent and the same events proceeded. Andy is originally from Aberdeen but now calls home Prestwick. I was talking to them both about the difficulty of our accents over here. Not just with the kids but with our peers also. It was refreshing not having to curve my accent to be understood.

On a whole, my first night out in Downtown was good, here's to many more...

Into the swing of things....

Today is the 8th, which means i'm 10 days short of being here a month now - feels like longer.

The way my work comes into play i basically write off Mon-Fri as doing anything time. I'm usually up 'til 4/5am. The alarm goes off at 12pm and i start at 2.30pm. I finish at 10pm which really doesn't leave time or the notion to go on and do anything else. On Wednesdays we bother...we have a 'dress down' day (woop!) and so once we finish we generally head for some cheap grub and then to a watering hole.

My weekends so far have been spent heading into the centre of Daegu to catch up with Ally and Katie. I live about 20 mins away in a taxi which isn't really the best.

The picture above shows a yellow dot (ME) and a red dot (Ally nad Katie).

My working week is generally non-complex if i'm honest. Mon, Tues and Wed entail a unit of whichever workbook that certain class is doing. Thursday is reading or speaking tests which eats up 20min lesson times and Friday is pop-song day. This week is - No Matter What by Boyzone. FANTASTIC!

One major draw-back of this place is the fact that they don't tell you anything! Me and Tom keep getting into bother for things we're doing wrong but these are points that are either skimmed over quickly or not brought up. The Director was angry at me for not being in the school 30mins before my first class even though i was here at 2 and started at 2.30?!?!?! And also, we were told we had 20min classes but now getting a swearing for not keeping them 25mins. All. Good. Fun.

Morale in this place today is at a low, lets hope it gets better.

My 2nd week...

Haven't blogged in a while but i still don't have internet in my apartment which is AWFUL!!!

Well, the Korean's poor attempt at Christmas is over and it's back down to the 'hard graft'. Personnally, there's still a great feeling of not quite sure what is happening and when it's happening in terms of my working day.

On Christmas day me and the girls kicked about, ate crap, watch films, went out for dinner and then played cheap Korean imitation Monopoly ('Expensive Hotel Buying Game'). Boxing day was a late rise of 3PM. Once we were ready we headed into Downtown, got some food and went to see Sherlock Holmes (not worth it). I got back to my flat lastnight and basically cleaned til i went to sleep. I can now work my Korean washing machine after more than a week.

This week should be a good one. I've only got classes on Monday and Tuesday and then off until the next Monday - woop woop. And because the teaching programme did not account for a 5-week-month then i've to try and kill time for these two days.

Here goes...

My first Korean meal

YouTube won't let me post my videos for some reason so i'll have to do them through this.

And......i'm here

First of all a special thanks to Royal Mail for firstly dashing my dreams then stressing me much, i'll never use you again.

Anyway, i'm in Korea town, or Daegu if you're being picky.

7 hours flying, 8hrs flying, 4 hours on a bus and 15 mins in a taxi to now be staying in a motel for the night as my apartment is being cleaned for my move tomorrow ( Saturday). i am stealing their internet so every cloud.

My Director is a very nice man. he showed me the school, took me for dinner and a beer then paid for my motel = nice guy.

Really tired after all the travelling though i have snoozed of and on all day and Emirates kept up with my eating aspiratins for the day :).

Glad to finally be here, hate to be missing things at home but i know this is going to be fun.