Well, it has been some time since I posted anything online – mostly because I’ve had very little of note to report! There are a few Korea-related things taking shape in my head right now so once I find the time and words I’ll post something up. In the meantime however, I’ll give a brief rundown of recent happenings here in the ROK.
Christmas was great – some friends and I headed to a city called Daejeon which is a little under an hour away on the train from Daegu. We stayed at one of Korea’s ubiquitous love motels, dined on a Vietnamese Christmas dinner and indulged in some R&R the following day with a visit to the hot springs and Thai massage (when in Korea…)
New Years Eve was spent in Seoul with a large group of friends from the EPIK program. Eleven of us boarded the KTX on New Years Eve and headed north into plunging temperatures. – New Year’s Eve was the coldest day Seoul had seen the entire winter and we rang in the New Year in Pavilion Square rugged up against the -18 degree temperatures (that’s zero Fahrenheit for the Americans). After midnight we headed to Hongik University district where we met up with a large group of fellow EPIK and hagwon teachers and spent the night drinking, chatting and wound up the celebrations with a visit to a luxury noraebang (karaoke house). The following day we went to Lotte World, which is an enormous indoor theme park/shopping mall/monument to Western capitalism – bought to you by everyone’s favourite East Asian industrial conglomerate - Lotte! Some of the attractions included an indoor theme park, ice skating rink, bowling, indoor shooting range, video arcades, western-themed restaurants, souvenir shops and a folk museum. Hours of endless fun for millions of Koreans, and even more fun for Westerners observing said Koreans on the ice rink.
My time in January has largely been spent teaching English classes at other schools (known as ‘camps’) and battling technology problems. I worked at three separate English camps over the break, including one at my own school. One of the schools I worked at asked all of the students to give themselves an English name and as you can imagine there were some absolute pearlers. Notable examples include Puzzle, Bad Boy, Spring and Summer (all boys), and Ice, People and Cream (all girls). At the end of the camp students were asked to write a letter to one of the native English teachers on the camp. I got a bundle of letters with some wonderful quotes and sweet sentiments – namely “you have a boyish face” , “tell me how to get a small face like you” and “why aren’t you married?”.
It also snowed like crazy on the first day of my first camp – see pictures below. It was the first and (hopefully) only snow of the Daegu winter, but boy was it a good one! I had to walk home in the snow that day as the school I was teaching at was located deep in a valley and buses and cars were ill-prepared for the snow and unable to drive up the hill. It was a treacherous 4 kilometer walk home but again, a novelty so I didn’t mind it too much at all. Goodness knows I need the exercise.
Last weekend a group of us headed north to the Taebaek Snow Festival, which took place at Mt Taebaek up near the North Korean border. The website for the festival made it sound like great fun, and a day not to be missed. On arrival we found some snow carvings and sculptures, some largely disappointing sled tracks for small children, and one dog sled capable of carrying up to two waif-like children. One of the highlights for me was the ice café – a giant igloo in which you could purchase a coffee and drink it at the frozen chairs and tables. A little cold on the butt, but definitely a novelty. Later in the afternoon James decided to liven things up by face-planting on a frozen river – by some miracle he didn’t break his nose although the small cut on his forehead bled profusely. He also acquired a most attractive ‘trout pout’ when his teeth cut into his lips on impact. As usual the practical Koreans had an ideal remedy for his head injury – a sticking plaster and some panadol. After a fall like that I’m surprised they didn’t treat it with more caution as he really gave it a good knock. Still, overall it was a nice day out – definitely worthwhile just to inhale some clean mountain air as opposed to the usual Korean city smog and haze.
The ice cafe
The outside of the ice cafe
And coming up over the next month … Taiwan! I leave Daegu on the 17th of February and head to Seoul where I’ll be staying with Drew for a night and catching an early flight to Taipei on the 18th to meet my sister Kate. Friend and fellow EPIKer Kristin arrives on the Sunday and we’ll be around and about Taipei until the following Thursday. At the moment it looks like I’ll be staying on in Seoul for Joanne’s birthday but have yet to finalise anything. Bring on the travel, it’s been far too long!
