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