Saying ‘Goodbye’ to John.

The other night we went out to celebrate John’s last week, and Rob’s first week, here at the academy. Nothing too fancy, dinner at Gimbap Heaven (김밥 전국) followed by a few hours of drinking at WA Bar afterwards (a few glasses of wine went down well).

It’ll be sad to see John leave. He was the sounding board for a lot of my thoughts and ideas at the academy, and for the most part we shared the same opinions regarding work, although both happy to disagree with each other and respect each other’s opinion. I’m not sure about John’s feelings about leaving, but I do know he’s going back to Gwangju and I have no doubt he’ll be happier in a more familiar location with people he knows.

I’m still amazed a year has gone since he joined. I think it was only the other day I was saying how many things have happened in the last 12 months.

In his place comes Rob ‘Teacher’. Rob is close friends of Kris and Miranda, having worked with them in Ulsan, and I’ve had the pleasure of his company when we went camping earlier this year, as well as a handful of time I went drinking with Kris and Miranda. He’s a nice bloke and seems confident in the classroom, so I don’t think he’ll have much, if any, trouble settling into the academy.

It is somewhat a period of change at the academy at the moment. There’s a few new Korean teachers having started in the last couple of months, and with John leaving next week, Kris and Miranda in December, and I’ll be heading off in mid-February, there will certainly be a different feel around the place early next year.

Of course change in any academy is good, especially for the students who are able to have more exposure to different foreigners and their varying accents.

I also realized that I’m again the oldest foreigner working here AND that only 3 of the Korean teachers have been here longer than I have. When did that happen!?

Weekend Report: Shopping downtown and Yorkshire Pud’s.

It’s been a cold and wet weekend, a vast contrast to the weather over the last couple of months and no doubt an indication that winter is just around the corner. Despite the overcast conditions on Saturday, Em and I decided to spend the day downtown. We don’t go downtown that often, so we do like going there when we get the chance.

We had a nice sleep in during the morning, so we only got downtown by early afternoon, just in time for a late lunch. Beforehand, I made a stop at Kyobo books, one of the few places in Daegu that have a large selection of English books. I bought two books seeing as I have recently extinguished my supply of books at home thanks to an extended 2 hour break I have every second day at work.

For lunch we enjoyed a delicious meal of Korean seafood shabu shabu (해물 샤브샤브), a meal that both Em and I really enjoy.

We spent the rest of the day shopping around and admittedly way too much time in the three 1,000 won stores (dollar stores) that I know my mum would have absolutely loved. I didn’t buy much else, nor did Em, but it was nice to walk around in the sun, which had managed to escape the confines of the clouds. We ended the day with a trip to Coffee Bean, where I enjoyed a Chai Latte and Apple crumble (did I mention that I was off my special diet for the week, 4 kg’s in the last week alone!) while Em had an orange and mango juice and a slice of Chicago cheesecake (her absolute favourite).

It was a beautiful way to spend a Saturday.

On Sunday we spent the whole day at home while it rained for, quite literally, the whole day. It gave me a good opportunity to clean out Em’s notebook, format everything, and reinstall Windows and all her other software (it’s quite fun testing your Windows installation knowledge when installing it in Chinese). I even got her wireless connection working ok.

In the late afternoon I made an absolutely delicious and scrumptious beef casserole, served with pipping hot, fluffy, homemade Yorkshire puds that I felt rather proud of, seeing as it was my first attempt to make them.

On a cold, rainy, wet, Sunday afternoon, nothing beats the smell of Yorkshire puds cooking in the oven. Served in a nice bowl, and then covered with a generous amount of casserole on top (a little variation from roast beef, admittedly) it was surprisingly one of the most delicious meals I’ve had in a long while.

Although my diet of rabbit food over the last months probably isn’t the greatest compliment I can pay the dish, but I think you get the picture.

It was also, we think, the first time Em has ever had Yorkshire puddings and was greeted my Em’s trademark ‘MMMmmm!’ of delight upon trying them. There can be no greater compliment for me.

And so today is another week. This week is also my co-worker’s, John, last week at the academy, before he heads back to Gwangju. I believe Rob, the new teacher (and one of the blokes I went camping with earlier this year) starts today (or at least will be coming in to say ‘Hello’).

I have also promised by 6 o’clock class that we’ll be having a dok-bok-gi (떡볶이) party today for the great work they have been doing over the last couple of months.

All in all, should be an interesting day. How is your day looking?

Time goes by so fast.

I know I’ve said this a million times before, but the weeks really are flying by so quickly.

In as short as only a couple of weeks, my co-worker John will have finished his 12 months here at the academy before he moves on again. It’s hard to imagine that 12 months has passed in that time. It doesn’t even feel that long since one of the other co-teachers, Johan, left the academy over 18 months ago.

And of course I’ll be leaving Korea in as little as 5 months. That’s only 21 or 22 weekends away. Believe me when I say that the time between now and then will disappear very quickly.

As for this weekend, there are no special plans other than grocery shopping. Sometimes it’s nice to have a quiet weekend.

A quick weekend. Student presentations. Mexican food.

That was probably the quickest weekend yet.

On Saturday we had our presentations for the academy at EXCO, Daegu’s convention centre. John, Kris, Miranda, and I met at Dunkin Donuts prior to leaving our area. The young girl working there seemed so surprise to see 4 foreigners all dressed up on Saturday and couldn’t help herself from saying how handsome we all looked. Considering the normal attire of us foreigners, she probably had some grounds to be surprised.

We took a taxi to EXCO, which took just under 30 minutes, and got to work. We started at 3 and finished around 7. Kris, Miranda, and I went down for a quick drink between the presentations and, only after getting back, realized that we’re 15 minutes late for the next ones (we thought we’d be 15 minutes early). As soon as I walked into the room, I was handed the mic and had to introduce myself.

Not exactly the best way to turn up, but hey, these things happen.

After the presentations we (minus John) headed downtown and had a delicious Mexican dinner at the Holy Grill. We also had quite a few drinks there, after Em joined us, who was also downtown with some of her friends,  before calling it a night and heading home.

On Sunday we got up late (12:30!) and did our weekly shopping before heading home and just taking it easy for the rest of the day.

All in all, a quick weekend.

A dreary Saturday lined up at EXCO.

I would like to say I’m happy it’s Friday as I don’t have to work tomorrow, but I’m not and I do have to work tomorrow. About 3 times a year we have presentations for the students. The students work for a month on them and, as I’ve posted about before, they present them in front of the parents at Daegu’s large convention centre, EXCO.

My part in all of this is getting up, introducing myself, and then asking each student question relating to their presentation and/or studies. In all honesty, we’re there for no other purpose than evidence that the academy indeed has real life, walking, talking, large nosed foreigners. This, I readily accept as part of my employment obligations.

It’s actually an easy day, just a tad boring, and we’re rewarded with a trip to a pork restaurant afterwards, which is great for a non-pork eating person like me and the two vegetarians also working at the academy. I will, like every other time (except once) skip it and will probably meet Em afterwards downtown, where she will be spending the day with some of her fellow teachers and students. I’m not sure if my two vegetarian friends are interested in joining us.

John, always up for free food and drink, will probably go to the restaurant.

In addition to a day asking silly questions and looking non-Korean, there is a 10 minute pep-talk after the presentations with out head boss. The very same head boss whose daughter I teach and who doesn’t seem to know enough English to say ‘Hello’ or even acknowledge my existence when I walk into the room (the boss that is, not the daughter). But that’s ok, he pays me on time which in Korea fulfills his obligation of being a ‘good’ boss.

The 10 minute pep-talk is all in Korea (a third of the teacher there from the 3 branches are non-Korean) so it’s as boring as hell. The 3 minute talk afterwards, by one of the other directors, is basically the same old spiel about how well we are doing.

It’s all very yawn-yawn. I’ll do my best to sneak away straight after my last presentation as some of the other teachers from the different branches did. Muwhahaha!

A nice BBQ and a few drinks on the roof.

It was nice to have some moments of sunshine in what was a generally overcast Sunday for my mini barbeque on the roof yesterday. We invited John over, who came with both a pitcher of beer (well done sir) and a very delicious Paris Baguette cappuccino cake (which instantly won Em over), and spent the afternoon and early evening chatting away, eating, and just having a good time.

I had bought some nice US beef steaks from HomePlus on Saturday, but only noticed once I opened the pack that it was in fact beef ribs, and not steak. Hell, even better. I gave them all a good coat of barbeque sauce (the nice stuff from CostCo) and cooked them up with some garlic-butter potatoes in foil. The night before I had made some egg salad, something which both Em and I really love, as well as some hamburger buns I also got at HomePlus.

It was a delicious meal and we all walked away from the table happy with our fill.

John and I then headed up to the roof where we chatted for a good 3 hours about almost every topic under the sun, whilst drinking some beer and a few smokes (well, a couple of cigars including a nice fat one Aaron had bought for me in a set). To say the least, it was very relaxing and took me back to my Andong days sitting on the balcony on a Sunday afternoon talking to both/or Aaron and Jay while having a few cold ones.

Around 7′ish, John said his goodbyes (after cake and coffee) and Em and I spend the night very lazily sprawled over the bed watching TV and having a dinner of instant bowl spaghetti for me, and instant bowl jjang-bok-gee for Em. It was really all we wanted for dinner, and while I’ve never been fan of instant spaghetti in a bowl (we bought them as sale very cheaply) it wasn’t too bad with a slice of cheese in it.

And that was how we rounded off the weekend.

This week hold nothing out of the ordinary for me. I plan to do at least 2 hours of study every morning on my TEFL certificate. There’s a lot more information than I first thought and I’m not sure if I’m over analyzing a lot of the stuff. The worksheets at the end of each unit are really helpful as I’m assuming they’re a good indication of what’s going to be in the final exam. Still, seeing as I’m a bit rusty on the whole ’study’ thing, its best to be a little detailed than under detailed in regards to what I need to store in my head.

What did you get up to this weekend? Please share.

The weekend so far.

A pretty good weekend so far. Last night after work Em met me outside the hagwon and we headed down to the university area. On the way there I stopped in at McDonald’s and bought myself a Big Mac. I don’t usually eat McDonald’s these days (for no real reason) but I just felt like a Big Mac.

We also stopped at HomePlus Express where we bought some snack food, a couple of juices for Em, and a couple of cans of Hite beer for me. Heh, I’m sure sometime in the past I’ve posted about how much I dislike Korean beer. I started drinking Hite beer about 4 or 5 months ago as it’s what my co-worker John likes to drink when we go out. I had a few, and well, its not really that bad. Actually, everyone I have makes me dislike it less, and to be honest when I’m smoking a cigar with my beer, I’m fairly sure my taste buds have shutdown for the next 12 hours.

So Hite it is these days.

Once at the university area Em bought herself some fried sandwiches (토스트) and we headed to our usual DVD room. Last nights movie was Zodiac, which I have to confess to saying I have a fascination with real life serial killers. Without trying to sound too strange, I’m always found it amazing how they manage to avoid being caught for so long.

We spent today shopping in the morning, and this afternoon spend an hour or so doing so study. Seriously, I’m not used to studying like I did before. My brain has accumulated a nice coating of rust on it I think, but hopefully I can knock that all of in the coming weeks.

Tomorrow will be a nice relaxing day. I’ll do about an hour study in the morning, and then John will pop over in the afternoon and we’ll have a BBQ and beer on the roof, assuming of course it doesn’t rain. It’ll be nice to have a cold beer and a chat.

But for now, that’s about it.

A busy weekend and a visit to the soju tent.

Well that was a darn interesting weekend. On Friday night Em met me at my hagwon (lucky girl had the day off from work) and we headed down to the university area where we bought some fried sandwiches, snacks, and drinks, and watched a DVD in a movie room. We ended up watching Elizabeth, seeing as it was one of the only movies left we hadn’t watched yet. Good movie. It was also bitterly cold again, somewhat a bit of a back step from the weather we had about 3 weeks ago.

On Saturday we (being Em, John, and I) headed out to CostCo and bought some urgently required meat. CostCo meat isn’t necessarily the cheapest in Korea, but they are good cuts and I’m happy with what I pay for it. We also bought some other goods, more luxury than anything, but one does need to spoil themselves once and a while.

Kris from work had mentioned about getting together on Saturday night for a bit of an early Saint Pat’s drink. Daegu, being the small city that it is, meant we bumped into them (with Miranda, his girlfriend and our co-worker, too) and we decided to meet at the university area around 8pm.

Em and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing computer games, being the lazy so-and-so’s that we were.

We met up with John at 7:30, in front of the now derelict Pizza Hut, and headed over to Hard Rock, not the famous line of restaurants, but a basement drinking place that has a nice pool table, good selection of drinks, and not overly crowded on any given night. Kris and Miranda arrive just in time to witness just how badly I play pool. Oh yeah, Em also beat me in a game of pool, and she had never played before! Hmm…

After a couple of hours of drinking, pool, and electronic darts, we surfaced outside and looked for our next point of call (a mixture of Russian, American, Canadian, and God only knows what came to the pub and literally smoked us out).

Naturally it was a soju tent.

Sadly, the soju tent was not John’s finest hour and within, what seemed an hour, we, meaning mainly John, had consumed 3 bottles of Charm soju.

That’s when we called it a night.

I didn’t actually end up drinking much, a few beers and very little soju (less then 3 shots, I managed to get away by sipping the nasty stuff) so I woke up relatively early, and made Em and I a nice Sunday breakkie.

We headed off to E Mart for a shop in the morning, had some grilled fish and chicken wraps for lunch, and at night I made us an apple pie (photos tomorrow) which we ate while watching a movie (we saw Taken, an excellent, if slightly unbelievable, kidnapping movie).

And so here we are, Monday morning. How was your weekend?