So that was January...?

I stand before you, begging for forgiveness, seeking your eyes for that little bit of humanity left that will excuse my idleness, ever hopeful that you have not given up on me and you will continue to visit my blog. For I have been slack. Oh yes, I have; there is no point denying it. Yes, I have been busy. But for the last week or so, I’ve been plain old lazy. I have finally pulled myself out of my lethargic state in order to update this here blog, before I have an entire other book to write when I return…for in less than three days time, I shall be headed off…to a land down under!

More of that later. For now, let’s get going. I’d like to apologise to Peter firstly, in advance, for what will probably be a rather lengthy entry. He keeps complaining that I write too much; sorry Pete, but I’m not a bitesize writer. I suggest you settle in for the night.

I left off last time right before the staff ski trip, a sojourn that proved to cost us the exact sum of precisely nothing. It was explained to me where the funding came from: the school subsidy and the parents’ association contribution made sense, but what amused me was that nearly half of the total cost came from the profit from the school’s two vending machines. God bless those kids and their thirst! So on the last day of term, after the kids had gone home, off we trundled to Muju, the southern end of the country’s most popular ski resort. We arrived in time for dinner and night skiing. I had opted to try snowboarding – a wise decision? We shall see. But I needed a lesson before I could get going, so while the experienced snow folk headed off up the hill, and the others started their ski lesson, I stood waiting for my snowboard instructor.

And I waited.

And I waited.

I tried to stay positive: jumped up and down, ran around a bit, sang to myself. But after an hour – bearing in mind that it was minus 11 degrees – I was ready to get some hot chocolate and go home. One of the other teachers decided he was going to teach me…it was interesting, given that he was trying to teach me something too advanced, he reeked of soju, spoke no English and kept trying to get me to board into a group of sledding children! Eventually I did give up for the night, and headed back to the bus to wait for the other teachers. Back for more food, a chat with the teachers, and lots of apologies from my principal for my instructor never showing up. Korean people feel very bad when one of their people lets you down. They assured me that someone would be there the next day waiting for me, and that my co-teacher was going to stay with me as a translator. So when we went for breakfast the next morning, there was my instructor. And what an instructor he was. Sigh…marry me, Mr Ahn!

He was delightful: dashing good looks, charming and helpful. Admittedly everything he said was being translated by Mr Lee, so he could have been saying anything about me. But he was very encouraging, with his many cheers of “hwiting!” (Not a spelling mistake: Koreans think that “fighting” is a common Western cheer, and their pronunciation makes it sound like “hwiting”.) I did ok, I think. The hardest part, to be honest, was standing up, which he didn’t even try teaching me until it became apparent I was having real problems! But once I was up, I was flying, and enjoying it. I find it easier than skiing; it’s definitely easier to stop, and that was always my problem with skiing.

We only had a couple of hours, and so I made sure that my last fall was by far the most impressive; the resulting bruise most certainly was! A few photos and some hot chocolate later, we were back on the bus and I was waving goodbye to my glorious instructor. Perhaps someday, we shall meet again!

And so it was New Year’s! Carol’s boyfriend was flying in to visit her for a few weeks, and a friend of ours had flown in from Jeju, so we were celebrating in Gwangju. New Year’s Eve Eve, Charlotte and I hopped on a bus and headed south. A random – and yet typically Korean – night followed, involving a karaoke soju bar, a group of Korean guys, and inevitably some ramyeon (like Pot Noodles, but tastier). The next day we headed to Phillippa’s corner of the city for an all-you-can eat vegetarian buffet; we are discovering more of these in Korea, at least in the south-western part of Korea – and they’re quite a treat, considering vegetarianism is almost unheard of here. Char and I then headed back into the city centre, and embarked on some crazy, high-speed shopping!

We had decided to dress up for the night, so I had bought myself a beautiful new red dress (sorry Pete and Miki! By the time I decided I wanted a dress, you were already back home!) and some nice new shoes – all from the internet, of course, nothing here fits me! But I needed a black coat to wear with it, so off we set on what I thought was mission impossible. We kept finding the most gorgeous of coats, soon to discover they only came in sizes petite or midget. And yet, lo and behold, the Holy Grail was uncovered! I am now the proud owner of a very Korean style coat.

An hour or two of primping and painting later, and we were ready to see the New Year in with great celebration. It was a fabulous evening: it was all about the people, and I was with some wonderful people (including Carol’s boyfriend, Ronan, by the way, who we certainly approve of!) We sang, we laughed, we danced, we met new wonderful people. We spent the evening at Speakeasy, the foreigner bar in Gwangju that Carol and Phil frequent, so we had a shot of Auld Lang Syne at midnight; and my folks had worked out how to phone my mobile, so I was able to talk to the family just after midnight (and then at their midnight, my 9am, although I was half-asleep!)

Memorable moments from the night include Char breaking two of her New Year’s resolutions, one thrice in the first ten minutes, the other by 7am; Phil’s many fallings over; and Carol’s Irish dancing lessons in the corner. Also, I have never before been in a bar where some of the best conversations are had in the toilets. (If you saw it, you would understand.)

New Year’s Day lunch for Char and myself was KFC, that most kingly of foods. It was a relaxing day: we took some photos, dandered, shopped a little, went to see a movie, and finished off with shabu shabu, a tasty mini banquet of beef and soup and veggies and noodles and fried rice. We were expecting our other partners in crime to join us, but they never quite made it in from their respective corners of the city.

The movie we saw was a Korean movie, very popular here at the minute, about an overweight singer who provides the voice for an otherwise tuneless pop act, who decides to have radical surgery to become slim and beautiful, and win the heart of her true love, blah de blah. We found it very funny, despite not understanding any of what was being said; we were able to follow most of the storyline, although we clearly did miss a few jokes. And we’re not entirely sure if the ending was “appearance isn’t everything; even if you’re fat, you’re still beautiful” or “you are successful and I love you now that you are thin”. All we know is that there was a lot of crying. I think the movie is called “200 Pound Beauty” in the rest of the world, so if someone could have a look for us, with the English subtitles, and let me know, that would be great!

The next day was back home, and back to reality. The silly festive period was over, and it was time to get stuck into camp season!

I started on the Thursday, a two day camp for Fru’s region. As soon as it was finished on Friday, I had to go up to Char’s in time to start her two day camp at 9am the next morning. As soon as that one was over, she and I came back to mine in Gumi, where we were joined by Fru, in time to start our provincial camp on the Monday. Eek. So we were already tired!

The provincial camp, held in my school, lasts for five days, and runs for about 13 hours a day. There are forty students, ten native teachers and five Korean teachers. It’s not strict lessons like school; it’s an English immersion camp, so it means that all the activities are in English. There were dance and song classes, culture, cooking, and art. You’d like to think that I got cooking, wouldn’t you? Nope, I got put in the art class! Me! Doing art! Is there a more ludicrous idea? I think not. It wasn’t too bad – all we did was some origami, and since I’ve never done it before and usually at least some of the kids know something, I had them teach me. And we finished the class with a paper aeroplane competition.

As well as the classes, there are other activities: the first night, there’s a talent show; we hold a mini-Olympics; one night is a quiz; one afternoon is a field trip; and the big event is the skit (a short play), which the students have to learn and perform in less than three days. It is a demanding week, and it is tiring, but the students enjoy it, and I think most of the teachers do also! The students are from all over the province, and they don’t know each other to start off with, so they’re quite shy on the first day. But by the end of the week they’re bestest buddies, and they’re in floods of tears saying goodbye!

The teachers provide tonnes of energy to get through it; I don’t think it’s possible to work one of these camps unless you can go a little crazy and use up all the energy you’ve ever possessed in all of your life! I know I spent my time jumping around, dancing and singing, and running around like a mad thing. The teachers have a laugh too; we were lucky in that quite a few of us were already friends, and most of the other teachers were great. Filling time during performances, we would sing for the students, or teach them songs, and generally entertain. I felt for a while like we were entertainers on a cruise ship!

We did two weeks of this camp: two different groups of students, but the same activities. It’s amazing the difference that personalities make. Everyone noticed a stark contrast between the two weeks: perhaps it was that our expectations were different, perhaps we were too tired, or perhaps the change in Korean teachers had an effect. Whatever it was, the second week was definitely the more difficult. The students seemed a lot quieter, and of slightly lower ability, and took much longer to come out of their shells. I know I had a very stressful time during the second week: I won’t go into too much detail, but suffice to say my native co-teacher and I had a bit of a personality clash, and I found it very difficult to teach with him. Plus our students were much quieter, and so everything was that little bit harder. It was probably the most stressful week I’ve had since coming to Korea, but you know what, it was just a week, I struggled my way through it, and I tried to have fun with the students and the other teachers. I did the best I could.

In the second week, Tony and Char wrote a new skit for their team, based entirely around the teachers who were working the camps, playing up our idiosyncrasies and habits. And the students performed it perfectly! It had me crying with laughter, as they had picked up on so many little things that the rest of us hadn’t noticed. One habit I got into during the camp was making jam sandwiches every night for some of the other teachers: they all stayed in a hotel nearby, because they don’t live in Gumi, and had to eat the school breakfast every morning, that is, a Korean breakfast, which they weren’t all too keen on. So I became sandwich maker. The skit was full of in-jokes that will only ever be understood by the people who were there!

The camps were definitely fun, and I’m still getting e-mails and texts from some of the students. The students being Korean teenagers, the girls are very open in their crushes, and most of them fell for two of the teachers working the camps, Tony and Ben. Tony – my normal co-teacher – had told me of Ben’s attraction to teenage girls at camps; he had told me that groups of girls literally follow him everywhere. I thought he was exaggerating…and then I saw it for myself! Ben is a very friendly character, and clearly puts everything he has into his teaching, and the girls just fell at his feet! They followed him, they giggled at everything he said, and they doodled “I heart Ben” over everything. Despite what Tony says, a lot of them are the same towards him! I’m getting texts these days that go along the lines of “good night, I miss you, but I love Ben!” Or “where is Tony? Why hasn’t Tony replied to my e-mails?” Ah well, I just console myself by thinking that the boy students feel the same way, they’re just not as forward. Sometimes, the love just isn’t obvious!

So apart from the fact that, thanks to Ben, there are now eighty Korean students who will forever refer to me as “Jen-i”, Forrest Gump-stylee, it was a memorably few weeks, with good times and good laughs had with both students and other teachers. And as soon as it was over, in true Jeni fashion, I hopped on a bus and headed back down to Gwangju to see Carol!

We decided we both needed a relaxing weekend, so we planned some shopping, lots of tea, eating and movies. And we did that. With a little bit of a diversion in the middle! Carol is blessed with a wonderful co-teacher who has become a good friend, and who takes her to festivals and shopping, has her around for dinner, and shows her the sights. Unfortunately, Hojeong is moving to Vietnam in a few weeks to teach for a couple of years, so I know Carol will miss her dearly. But on this weekend, we had dinner at her apartment, with her cute little son (who didn’t take to me too warmly) and then caught a late movie. We went to see Déjà vu, which was very good – and I can say that despite dozing off a few times in the middle of it! I was very tired – it had been a very long week and it was late! But a very good movie nonetheless.

The next day, we decided to go to Mokpo, which is one of the main fishing ports on the coast, and where you catch the ferry to Jeju Island. We fancied seeing the sea, and having a nice romantic stroll along the beach. Ahem. Yes. Beach. We found it. It was about 10 paces wide! We got there late, but we arrived just in time for the sunset, which was beautiful, and as freezing as it was, we enjoyed our short dander along the coast. We made it a very Irish trip to the seaside by munching on Tayto crisps as we went!

We were only to be there for the day…we honestly did not intend to stay overnight! But fate intervened! We know a few people in Mokpo – they go up to Gwangju quite often, Gwangju being only an hour away and a much bigger city, so Carol meets a lot of them there – and one of the girls we know is someone that Carol went to school with. Nicki is a bit mad, but tonnes of fun, as is her boyfriend, Andy. As soon as she heard we were there, she declared that we were going out, and persuaded us to stay overnight. She’s very persuasive! Dinner was another all-you-can-eat vegetarian buffet, and then we sampled some Korean raspberry wine – very delicious – and then headed to the apartment of a couple who were having a shindig. And these two have by far the nicest teacher’s apartment in Korea, ever! I think it was three-bedroomed, with a proper living area, kitchen, and a bathroom that was nearly the size of my entire apartment! Lovely couple, very aware of how lucky they got with the apartment, and they had a lovely dog, so I couldn’t hold anything against them!

The regular Carol and Jeni shenanigans ensued for the rest of the night. The next day, we dandered down to the seafront again, and sat on the rocks at the edge of the sea for a while. Mokpo – even though it’s a ferry port, is quite pretty, and has a couple of mountains jutting up in the middle of the city. You can walk all the way from the seafront to the top of one of the mountains, and Carol and I have decided that the city would be lovely in summer, so we’ll definitely be back. The day was really quite warm, given that it was the middle of January, and we enjoyed relaxing on the rocks. Until a boat went by and created some waves which I didn’t get away from in time!

That evening, it was back to Gwangju, dinner and another film – The Museum this time, very silly, but still good for a couple of hours entertainment, and worth it if only for Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan. I headed home the next day, and was back in work the next day…trying to figure out what on earth I was to be teaching over the following few days!

Remember I mentioned a mammoth manuscript that caused great consternation just before Christmas? That was for a couple of days of elementary teacher training that took place this past week. But we hadn’t been given any idea of what we should be teaching in the classes! We started on Wednesday, and I was given a bit of a clue sometime Tuesday afternoon! It transpired that we were essentially just doing regular conversation classes with the teachers, just to get them some practice with native speakers. There were three different classes, and each one was completely different in terms of ability and personality. It was very interesting, talking to older Koreans than usual. We talked about health and relationships – the latter being a very popular topic of conversation in this country. It’s probably an average of five minutes after I meet a new Korean person before they’re asking if I have a boyfriend or if I’m married. Usually followed with a sharp “why not?!”

Korea is a country obsessed with love: it’s a couple-oriented nation that has at least four separate Valentine’s-style days. And it’s very ‘in-your-face’ love; it’s very difficult to avoid. Especially when it comes to the matching t-shirts and – you’d better believe it – matching outfits that are available. On my 15 minute walk to work, I pass no fewer than four bridal shops. Hearts adorn everything, and most of the Konglish visible on t-shirts and notebooks is somehow connected to love. This probably partly comes from the group-centred aspect of Korean culture: they do everything in groups, the main loyalty being to family. This is one of those countries where it’s a bit more uncomfortable to go for coffee and dinner alone; people wonder why you’re by yourself. That’s why I like a few places I’ve found, where they now just accept me! (Bit of a digression: I’ve now completed one of my personal Korea goals: I have a “usual” in a restaurant! I go in, and they know exactly what I’m having. And honest, it’s not because it’s the only thing I can say – actually, I still don’t know how to say it! – it’s just so delicious!)

That pretty much brings us up to today! Oh, except for yesterday (Sunday): my friend Kirsty’s 30th birthday, so I went to Daegu to have dinner with her and some other folk. And I was very excited about it, because we had proper Indian food! Not Korean “curry”, but proper, authentic Indian/Pakistani food. It was lush, and all-you-can-eat. There was lamb, and pilau rice, and freshly baked naan, and some sort of tasty green trifle, and proper chai tea. The evening also included the immortal moment of me declaring, “it’s ok, I used to work in a café”, seconds before sending one of the buffet tray lids crashing to the floor, much to my embarrassment!

Other than that, I’ve spent most of the last few days cleaning, doing laundry, watching Scrubs and House MD, and eating bread, cheese, eggs and ham with a dash of sweet chilli sauce (I’m refusing to go to the supermarket before I leave on holiday, so I’m living off what I can buy at the local store). Today, I started packing, and got some money changed – Australian dollars are cool! They’re plastic, and oh so colourful! And good old Queenie is on them. So, yes, indeed, in case you had forgotten…I'm going to Oz!

Carol and I are meeting in Seoul on Wednesday; we’re both treating ourselves to the KTX, Korea’s bullet train, and I’m even tempted to spring for first class. We’re hanging around Seoul for a bit – because I’ve seen practically nothing of it – and then on Thursday evening, we’re jetting south for the winter! Ok, for a few weeks. Carol’s brother – who we’re staying with – has so much planned for us, it’s going to be non-stop, and it’s going to be awesome! This will be a new experience for me – I’ve had so little to do with the planning of it, and I’m actually travelling with someone else who isn’t family, and that’s all a first. I usually travel alone, or with family, so I usually do most of the planning. But this time, I’m just going wherever they tell me to go! It will be interesting, and, please, keep Carol in your thoughts – she has the privilege of being my first non-family travel buddy, so who knows how I’m going to act!

Right then, I’ve written another epic. I don’t know who is still reading at this point – I write so sporadically and at such length that I’m sure I’ve lost a few people. I’ll be off to Oz in a few days, but when I get back, I will make it my challenge to write more regularly, to keep things a decent length. And I still have so many things to write about, outside of the normal day-to-day happenings! Perhaps I’ll get one or two of those written tomorrow, but they’re definitely near the top of my to-do list.

I also wish I could make this a little easier to read by putting photos in as well, but unfortunately, my evil computer is still not letting me do that, and I can only do it at school, and I’m not at school much these days. As soon as I can, I will. And I really shouldn’t call my computer evil: it’s probably just getting back at me for the many times I’ve dropped it. Did it again yesterday; had to put some of it back together! Poor thing.

That’s enough for now! Hope all is well, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. All the very best and warmest Jeni wishes to you.