Adventure is my middle name

I went to a movie tonight, the water diviner, had a good cry, and learned that the downside of movies being in English is that when there are pieces in another language that I assume are captioned, those captioned are sometimes replaced by the korean subtitles, leaving me guessing at what is going on!  But I'm not really complaining. And that isn't what I'm commenting about in the title.  After the movie when I used the facilities I saw some thing I haven't seen before, anywhere.  A mirror, on the inside of the stall door, at 'sitting' height. Very smart actually.  If checking yourself out is as important as it appears to be here,  there are mirrors everywhere.  Like at most bus stops.  Interesting don't you think! I also had 'coffee' with a new friend and tagged along with her to her acupuncture appointment.  It was fascinating and I ended up having a treatment too.  The lovely old guy pricked and squeezed blood out of each f...

I just put up a post I wrote earlier in the week, because I haven't had a chance before now since I'm mostly at GWell and the internet has not been going there until last night.... And then miraculously someone in my building got some unsecured wifi going yesterday so I now have internet just about all the time!  I won't know myself! And yes, I got paid! Don't know how much exactly because I haven't had time to get to the bank yet, and remember I don't yet have an eftpos card since I don't yet have an alien card! But I'm catching the bus to the bank this morning to withdraw some cash! Yay!  I'm surprised I slept last night with that excitement! And - drumroll please - we have 2 days off next Monday/Tuesday!  I like to think it was because I raised the issue but I guess I'll never know.  Of course it had to be tacked on to the weekend where I am doing the Saturday debate classes, but I'm working very hard to focus on the days off and...

It's been a hard week this past week and while the good news of having to mostly work at the new school location at G- Well which is 10m walk from my apartment is a good move forward, the downside is that there is no internet there yet so not only am I out of touch at home, I am also out of touch at school.  My only internet time is when I go to church, or Hyundai Department Store or Caffe Bene where I can get free internet.   I got Mr K mad at me, well I didn't really do anything, but somehow although I was at the school waiting, a student was left waiting'outside' and gave up and went home.  Mr K was so furious when he arrived he refused to speak to me or even look at me as he walked by me 4 or 5 times.  And then to make matters worse, a text changing the times and places of my start of work on Monday did not reach me, so the same student was let down again yesterday.  I got an anxious call from Mr K at 1:05pm asking if I was at the school.  I was heading...

I've been her 4 1/2 weeks now and some things have made themselves clear. Although my contract says no more than 30teaching hours a week, Monday to Friday with 6 vacation days a year, 3 in winter and 3 in summer.  And in the interview I was told around 3.00-9.00pm as much as possible. I haven't taught 6 hours a day on a regular basis but I see the other teachers with AT LEAST 6 a day.  The 3-9 is pretty accurate though often there are classes at 9 and even 10.  And you need to be there at least 30 mins before.  BUT then there are summer and winter 'intensives' or summer/winter school when the public schools are on holidays, which is what I came just in time for.  And during that time you may have your first class at 10 or 11 and then all the Same afternoon/evening classes as mentioned above.  And this goes on for around 4 weeks.  AND there is Saturday work - we rotate so at the moment once every 3rd Saturday.  But if the new teacher arrive...

Made it to church in Seoul. Big chapel then 10 extra rows into the hall - this was all on the third floor of the building.  I found Flora there but they have a Philipino Sunday School class so didn't see her again until RS.  People were mostly American, and friendly enough.  Feeling torn between the wards now. I'd quite like to go to Seoul every week, and the bus was only around 8000W each way but they have been so lovely in heungdeok Ward. Downside was I couldn't connect to the net there, could it be 300 ppl trying to connect was too many? Since I woke at 5 anticipating my 6.30 alarm (grrrr) and took only 5 mins to get to the express bus station when I had given myself 45, I was tired and hungry so Flora and I had some Sang Gup Sal in a restaurant before heading back to Cheongju.  It was the sitting on the floor kind of restaurant and cost W24000 for way more meat than we could eat (flora ordered 3 servings).  The side dishes are free and refilled as of...

There are 'French bakeries on every corner here.  Paris Baguette is the most common, with Tours les Jours not far behind.  Most items are packaged in little cellophane bags.  You pick up a tray and tongs at the door and put all the items on your tray and take them to the counter.  I have seen chicken salad there but it's been too freezing for me to try.  Mostly I don't have a clue what the things are, even with the English translation of the name.  This one was a pink bread roll but I didn't know until I bit into it that there was a sweet sort of creamy filling.  Many of the buns or rolls have a baked in filling.  I suspect this was some bean based thing but will never know.   I bought fried chicken one night.  A whole box for W8500.  But they grabbed it already cooked from a display case and re fried it so I wasn't having high expectations.  The interesting part is the 'side dish' that comes with it.  Wh...

Here are photos taken while I waited for the bus the other day.  See the pink tyre place?  And the brick building to the left?  Well that brick building is one of 6 in a group and I live in the one directly behind that one.  I live on the 2nd floor, no. 202.  I don't have to go far to the bus stop, but if I walk maybe 5 mins round the corner I can catch some other buses as well.  But mostly I just go from this bus stop these days. Notice it's 6 lanes so it is a Main Street, and see the quality of the road right at the front. This one is looking to my right, and if you look closely you'll see the Golden Arches of McDonalds.  I haven't been to that one yet.  I'll have to try to take some photos inside McDs.  They are not all the same!  Looking left I can see LotteMart outlet.  It does not seem very cheap to me, so I look forward to the season changing and seeing how the stores in there change.  Also in there is a movi...

I stopped at the LotteMart by the express bus to Seoul on my way home last night.  I have found the the fastest way home to BihaDong from BupyeongDong means catching the 50-2 to the express bus station then catching an 832, 717, 747 or 405 from there to home.  That second part would be walkable if it wasn't freezing and so late - I finished work at 9pm so it was near 9.30 by the time I got to LotteMart.  Anyway I hadn't been to that particular supermarket before and I wandered around looking for meat, yoghurt and milk.  And I nearly missed the cheese!  It was W6000 for 250g and it was that strangely coloured American stuff but I was so excited I could hardly wait to get home and grill some.  And it was delicious.  I have seen kilo blocks on the EZbuyKorea website for 16500W and I will def buy some of that when they open again this week, but they have been closed for the new year period (Clearly not run by Koreans!) and I have not sen any blocks of chee...

so I have finally found where to buy an arm chair!  I found a street (thanks to S) that had all furniture shops on it but NOT A SINGLE armchair or fabric covered suite in the whole street.  Apparently they like their leather and Faux leather here.   Then S suggested I look online and we have success!  Gmarket seems to be like Amazon - like there are many businesses on there selling their wares, and it is the only place (and a few other online stores) I have found that has single chairs like I am looking for.  but it turns out that they are pretty cheap so I will probably get a 2 seater, or maybe even a sofa bed, for around $200. But S is helping me navigate the Gmarket and a similar website CJmall, as they have some english or english translation but still have a lot of stuff in Korean.  Also she doesn't think they will take my foreign credit card and has very generously offered to use hers and have me pay her back.  How awesome is she??? The del...