Gangnam

Today, I met Annie at Guro station and then we headed into Gangnam in Seoul. I had a bit of a culture shock seeing so many "foreigners" (there are a lot of EFL teachers living in Gangnam) and British/American shops (Lush, Body Shop, Accessorise, Starbucks, Maccy D's). We browsed around the shops - I love all the cosmetics shops and can spend hours looking at eyeshadows and lipsticks! I thought I would have real trouble finding foundation and powder to suit my skintone, but no problems so far as many Korean women have pale skin anyway (just a different tone, ie yellow toned as opposed to pink toned like me). L'oreal stock the shade I usually use anyway.

After we were shopped out, we headed off the main street to find somewhere to eat and ended up at a steamed chicken restaurant. We had the Korean version of a Sunday roast - chicken with postatoes and other veg in a spicy gravy. It was delicious!

It seems you can find an Irish pub wherever you are in the world....

First trip to Seoul

I went into Seoul today to meet Annie who got in contact with me through the Language Exchange website. She needs to improve her language for her job as she works for MacDonalds in their regional HQ (not flipping burgers!) and I need to pick up some (any) Korean. Luckily, we hit it off straight away and her English is pretty good. She showed me round Guro, a suburb of Seoul, where she lives and then she took me to a Korean restaurant and we ate dolsot bibimbap (sort of like egg fried rice with vegetables and spicy pepper sauce and served in a stone pot). The waiter didn't give me any pepper sauce, so Annie called him over and he said that he didn't think I would want hot sauce being a Westerner...what a cheek. I made sure I ate it as hot as I could bear! Annie confessed that she doesn't actually like spicy food, but I promised I wouldn't tell anyone in case they make her renounce her Korean nationality and move to somewhere where the food is not so spicy (perhaps the UK?!)

City Hall

I walked back from GS Square along the main road and saw City Hall from a different angle. There are lots of odd statues and pieces of art outside, including some giant buttons. I don't know whether these are public art or gifts from twin cities. Judge for yourself.

Beyond City Hall

Today I decided to explore some more of Bucheon. I walked past City Hall towards GS Square where there is a large department store, also called GS Square. GS Square is around the same size as Hyundai, but is a little less snootier. If they were both in the UK, Hyundai would be House of Fraser and GS Square would be Debenhams. When I was travelling up the escalator, I could smell something which will be familiar to anyone who has walked down a UK high street - yes, there was a branch of Lush on the 8th floor!

GS Square Department Store

South of GS Square is another pedestrianised area with lots of bars, shops and restaurants. Apparently there is a British/European style cafe/bistro called Cafe Nicolia run by a British guy and his Korean wife around here somewhere, but I couldn't find it....

The skyline is dominated by the huge We've the State apartment complex. Apparently THE place to live in Bucheon if you truly want to keep up with the Kims.

Reflections

Looking back towards my side of town

Birthday party

Once a month, on Fun Friday, a birthday party is held for all the preschool students. The students make birthday cards for any students whose birthday is in that month and we all sing "Happy Birthday to you" in the gym. The birthday students are given birthday cakes to share with their classmates (and their teacher of course). Good times!

Health check

One of the things you first have to do when you move to Korea is undergo a medical to ensure you don't have any communicable diseases (including HIV), drug/alcohol dependency or anything else that could cause concern. I had to go to the hospital for my tests last week. I wasn't overly concerned as I'm fairly sure I don't suffer from any of the above, but its a bit nervewracking just in case! I had a full set of tests - urine, blood, eyesight, hearing, dental and blood pressure.

Luckily, it came back clean (always reassuring to have a clean bill of health) and I have put my application into immigration for a Alien Residency Card (or ARC) which allows me to live legally in Korea and be an official alien!

Subway Line 7

The Seoul Metro system is extending Line 7 from Onsu so it will run through the centre of Bucheon meeting up with the Incheon subway Line 1 at Bupyeong. My nearest subway station is Songnae which is a bus ride away, so it will be much handier for me when it is completed as there will be a stop named Bucheon City Hall. Of course, it would be even handier if Line 7 were to run all the way to Incheon airport. As far as I can work out, to get to the airport would mean taking a bus to Songnae, Line 1 to Bupyeong, switch to the Incheon subway to Gyeyang and then take the airport railroad to the airport. I think there are direct buses from Bucheon which is probably the easiest way to get to the airport.

I took some photos of the construction work while out walking the other day.

Looking towards the city centre, with the Mall in the background (left)

Looking towards Incheon

Teaching

Well, I survived my first week of teaching on my own. It wasn't too daunting as the lessons are all fairly straightforward to plan as you follow a set syllabus. I teach preschool in the morning from 9.50 to 12.40. Then I eat lunch with the preschoolers (free lunch is a nice moneysaver). The lunches are usually pretty nice. We always have rice and soup along with 3 or 4 side dishes, including the ubiquitious kimchi.

In the afternoons on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I teach 5 classes of 40 minutes each ranging from complete beginners upwards. I really like my last class of the day, there's only 4 students who are all really nice and they're my most advanced class, so we can have proper conversations in English. My largest class has only 10 students (both preschool classes and my beginners class) and 3 of my classes only have 4 students. On Mondays, we concentrate mainly on conversation, then on Wednesdays you can give the students a worksheet to complete and on Fridays, you can play a game (the students don't realise they are still learning while they are playing a game!)

St Patrick's Day

I teach preschool every day from 9.50 until 12.40 and every Friday is known as 'Fun Friday' when the kids get to draw and make stuff rather than do regular lessons. Today we celebrated St Patrick's Day and all the teachers and students wore something green. I tried to explain to them what St Patrick's Day was all about (not easy when they've only been studying English for 3 weeks), taught them to say "Happy St Patricks Day" and we made and decorated some paper shamrocks.

All the preschool students then had a 'getting to know you' session in the big playgym where they all introduced themselves and each class chanted (ie shouted) 'Happy St Patricks Day'. I was very proud that my class said it the best!

Sangdong Lake Park

On the way back from the Fantastic Studios, I stopped off to have a look round Sangdong Lake Park. The park is just off the main road which runs past Homeplus.

The building that has the sloping roof is called Tiger World. Sadly, there are no actual tigers there; it is in fact an indoor water theme park with slides, aromatherapy pool, sauna, hot tub and hot spring waterfalls. The pool has fish known as "doctor fish" who eat dead skin from your feet which is supposed to be good for your feet as it leaves behind healthy skin. To be honest, I think I would rather stick with a pumice stone. It sounds a bit weird to me to be splashing around in a swimming pool and having little fish eating the dead skin on your feet! I think the structure on the left is a golf driving range...

Sangdong Lake Park

Fantastic Studios

This afternoon I went to Bucheon Fantastic Studios, a location set where many Korean films and tv programmes have been filmed, such as Taegukgi, Low Class Life and Era of Opposition. Many of the streets are historical representations of old areas in Seoul such as Eujiro-gil and Myeongdong.

Buildings include the Hwasin Department Store built by the Japanese in the 1920s, Jongo Police Station where members of the independence movement were tortured and an old tram, the main means of transportation in Seoul before the subway system was built.

On a grey Tuesday afternoon, I pretty much had the place to myself and it was quite eerie wandering around the deserted streets. I had a peek through some of the windows, but was disappointed to find buildings filled with traffic cones and bits of old sets rather than fully furnished in the appropriate style! Many of the buildings were quite tatty and rundown, but somehow it added to the charm of the place. Once I paid 3,000 won (about £1.50) to get in, there were no more entreaties for cash - no souvenir shops or cafes, just a few vending machines.

Bin Bags

OK, so I've been really confused since I got here. I'd searched high and low, but could not find bin bags anywhere. Every morning, there is a pile of green Bucheon City binbags outside my apartment building, so they must sell them somewhere?! I noticed Bridget had one of the elusive green binbags in her apartment, so asked her and apparently you have to ask for them at convenience stores (or in my case, mime for them), so I am now the proud owner of several green bin bags, phew! They're really small and are quite expensive as Korea promotes recycling heavily - there are numerous bins outside my block for recycling - which I commend heartily. The expensive binbags are meant to encourage you to recycle as much as possible.

Tesco in Korea?!

If you live in Bucheon like me (and probably any other Korean city as far as I know), you will have the choice of two major supermarkets - Emart and Homeplus. Up to now, I've been doing my shopping at Emart because its nearer. The other day, I decided to explore in another direction and found Homeplus, right next to Sopoong cinema/mall. As I got closer, I saw a familiar logo underneath the Homeplus sign.

That's right - Tesco! And its huge, plus everything is on the ground floor (in Emart, you have to go down to the 2nd basement to do your grocery shopping). It makes me feel a little less homesick to see a familiar brand everywhere and they even do Value stuff

...although you can't buy Value kimchi in the UK!

The other major difference is that they have an advertisement video playing constantly on repeat all day throughout the store. Its fun and catchy, but I can well imagine that if you worked there, you would want to take a baseball bat to every tv screen in the store.

A night at a noraebang

Last night, I met up with Simon and Martina (who run the fantastic http://www.eatyourkimchi.com), Steve (a fellow Brit), Monica, Chris and Darren for a few drinks in Rhythm and Booze (the main expat bar in Bucheon). After a couple of drinks to get our vocal chords warmed up, we headed over to a noraebang (literally 'singing room') over near Bucheon Station.

It was quite a plush noraebang with leather sofas and groovy lighting. There was quite a good selection of songs in English and all the songs were accompanied by very cheesy Korean videos. I sang 'One Way or Another', a karaoke faithful and later on 'Wannabe' with all the girls (I may have drunk a bit too much Cass)

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Bucheon by night

Disco taxi

The noraebang from outside
Simon and Martina demonstrate their singing prowess

I seem to be getting the hang of the Korean peace sign pose

First impressions of Bucheon

I've been here a week and done a bit of exploring.

So far, Bucheon seems like a good city to live in. There are plenty of shops, restaurants, bars and coffee shops. My apartment is 2 minutes walk from school and is right in the city centre (although not as noisy as St Mary Street!). Across the road from my block is a pedestrianised area and also the Hyundai department store (they don’t just make cars you know), the shopping mall (including a branch of the Body Shop) and an Emart (supermarket). Across the road from the Hyundai store is Bucheon City Hall and Bucheon’s very own Central Park.

The nearest subway station is called Songnae and is about 10 minutes away by bus (or a half hour walk) which gets you into the centre of Seoul in about 35 minutes. They’re also building an extension to subway line 7 which will go through the centre of Bucheon and will link Seoul with the Incheon City (I don’t know why they don’t just build a direct line from Seoul to the airport).

Bucheon looks pretty cool at night time, lots of neon everywhere (very Lost in Translation). Here, businesses and shops aren’t just limited to the ground floor of buildings. There are often several floors of businesses in one building, each with their own neon sign. I’ll take some photos to try and illustrate…

Bucheon city centre

Signage

Pedestrianised area opposite my apartment

City Hall

Hyundai Department Store

Fried chicken

Tonight I went out on my first night out with my fellow teachers. We went for food in the fried chicken restaurant on the ground floor of my building. A massive plate of fried chicken is just 12,000 won (about £6.00) and 2 plates were more than enough for 7 of us. Afterwards we went to a sports bar called The Park. I can't get over how cheap everything is here - a big pitcher of beer was 10,00o won (about £5.00). We played some pool (I was shockingly bad as usual) and met some other EFL teachers who also live in Bucheon. Everyone, bar me, was either American or Canadian and I think I'm going to have to have a t-shirt made up saying "I am not English, I am Welsh" as the first question everyone keeps asking me is 'Where in England do you come from?"

My first day

It was the start of term the next day, so I headed to the school to meet the other teachers and observe classes for the day. There are 8 other foreign teachers (mostly from the US and Canada, I'm the only Brit) and a number of Korean teachers.

I moved into my apartment that evening. Its just a studio flat, but its nice enough and the whole ‘foreign-ness’ may make me forget its titchiness for the time being. Instead of having locks on your front door, here you have a keypad and you have to enter your PIN to get in. I’m fairly sure I will forget mine at some point!

In the mornings, I will be teaching pre-schoolers. They are 6-7 year olds who speak very little English, although its amazing how quickly they will pick up the language as all their classes are conducted in English (even the Korean teachers only speak English to them). On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I finish teaching after pre-school has finished and for the rest of the week, I will be teaching older students in the afternoons ranging from complete beginners up to more advanced students.

My apartment

Kitchenette

Bathroom

Keypad - I'll never lose my keys again!

First night in Bucheon

Preparations ended up being a bit frantic as I had a call on Friday afternoon to say my visa was ready and could I fly out the following day? As my flat was all packed up, I agreed. Spent Friday evening with Estelle, we went into town to watch the France v Wales match. Sadly we lost and hopefully not an omen!

The next day, I said goodbye to Estelle at the station and took the train to Heathrow to catch the 9.00pm flight to Incheon. The flight was fine - I flew direct with Asiana and barely noticed the flight was nearly 11 hours. Watched a couple of movies and dozed for a bit. Regretted choosing the steak for my meal instead of the Korean food as the Korean food smelled lush!

Arrived at Incheon airport, cleared immigration and was met by Jae Yoon, one of the directors of my school. Its is a private language academy, commonly known as a hogwan. My apartment wasn’t ready, so the school put me up in a hotel for the night, Hotel Kobos, which was gorgeous and included an electric toilet (no idea what the electric dials did and didn’t want to risk finding out)!

My room at Hotel Kobos

Electric boogaloo