An update

It's been very hard to find time to write in the blog over the last couple of months or so, so I apologize for the late update. I've simply been busy lately, planning, teaching, socializing and travelling. Have felt a little guilty, as there were many things I wished to have written about, and fortunately my schedule has freed up a little over the last week or so. All I've had to do is work wise is to supervise one exam and teach 2 classes this week, so have had time to catch up on things.

A lot of this time has been spent on catching up on my reading, since the book I've been trying to read hasn't had much love until recently. It is called Shogun by James Clavell, a novel about fedual Japan during the early 17th century (I think). The main character, Blackthorne, finds himself stranded in feudal Japan where he is captured and later housed by Japanese warlords. He finds himself in strange situations, unable to understand the culture and completely bewildered by the language. Eventually he manages to pick things up however. The main thing is I feel right now that I'm really feeling that I relate to this character.

Before you panic, don't worry. I haven't yet been captured by any Korean warlords. Mr Kim of the distant north hasn't attempted an invasion yet. There has I hear however been little coverage of the sunken South Korean warship in the media in the west. There is speculation over here that the boat was sunk by a North Korean torpedo, worrying many of the locals over here, their sons being currently under military service. Despite these concerns, I am still returning every evening safe and sound to my cosy Daejeon apartment, eating well and staying healthy.

However, I do relate to the development of Blackthorne's character as he experiences the new and fascinating culture. Many things I have to say are very different over here. For one thing there's the language, which is improving but still very basic. There is the constant frustration of wanting to start conversations with people but not knowing what to say. On this front, I find it helps just to smile at people and show them that you're willing to learn. I've found taxi drivers make great teachers, one even taught me how to count from one to ten when I was counting his fare. People also seem to think differently over here and in school I've constantly got to be careful of what I say to who. There have been times where I've unintentionally overstepped these cultural boundaries, and I have to admit it's very easy to do.

An example of this was with my settlement allowance, a sum of about 300,000 won which I was contracted to receive as salary during my first month of staying in Korea. I quickly learnt however that my school had actually spent that money on my behalf on household essentials, before I arrived in Daejeon. This took me a while to comprehend at the time but in retrospect I think of it as a nice gesture. In the west we would think of the money as ours and solely ours. Over here the thought was more that I will be very confused about what to buy when I arrive, so they will do the buying for me. This wasn't however where I overstepped the mark however. I did so by asking the wrong person for information about this issue, hence offending the person who was responsible for the settlement allowance (sorry about the passive voice, I want to keep anonymity here). I think he felt that he lost a little bit of face in this situation by being approached by someone else, and late became angry with me. Fortunately this situation has long since fizzled out. One thing I really like about the Koreans is that they're easy to forgive and forget.

On the big plus side, I'm really enjoying my life over here. Although I find myself disorganized with the planning sometimes and find myself planning late at night. Teaching is generally really good fun. With most of my classes I think I've built good rapport on the students. I taught them how to say the phrase 'Hey, I know you' with good intonation, and they greet me now in the corridors with the same phrase and a hello. My teaching lessons are a little Pavlovian in a way. I have learnt to group the students into three teams and give them points based on their teams performance. The winning team then gets chocolate at the end of the class and I find this a great way to keep them motivated. However to me chocolate is just part of a game, as I attempt to make my classes more fun and less regimented. The students can take it a lot more seriously and may get upset if I give out points for unfair reasons. It's amazing to think that you can motivate a group of ten students with three or four cheap chocolates which don't measure to more than a square centimetre.

My travelling adventures have also been fantastic, and there's been so much that I've wished to blog about. Maybe if I get a little more time I will write down some of the stories. Generally though I've spent weekend climbing mountains and hiking around fortresses. There's quite a bit of history in this place and lots of pagodas and temples can be seen as you explore both the cities and their outskirts. However I have come to learn that many of the historical look almost exactly the same. I think this is partly due to the face that the buildings have been raised and burnt down so many times that everything got rebuilt in the same style. They still are very pretty however, and can give you good vantage points over some beautiful mountain views.

The hikes over here are something else. Koreans seem to really love their exercise, and hiking is an extremely popular thing over here. It's common to go to a mountain on a nice day and see masses of Korean leisure hikers with their expensive hiking equipment and a resolve to get to the highest point they can. They do so en-masse meaning that to go hiking to escape the crowds can often turn out a futile objective. I have learnt lately that there are more that their are places you can go to escape the large crowds, but I haven't found a hike so far yet where we have been alone in the countryside. Very different from hiking in the UK. Up every major hiking trail it's common to find large tents serving refreshments, boiled eggs and pancakes; outdoor gyms and plenty of toilet stops. However most hiking over here does tend to involve lots of steep climbing, and I haven't been on a hike yet here where I've not find myself out of breath. Mind you, I do have an instinct to head for the highest point whenever I see it.

I've had some other interesting travel experiences which I wish I had more time to write about. I've visited both Seoul and Busan, the latter of which was my favourite trip so far. I had a chance that weekend to stay in the Korea Tibet Buddhist Centre and spend a weekend eating and exploring with Buddhist monks. I learnt a lot about Buddhism that weekend, and found the monks very nice and hospitable people. The cherry blossoms were blooming over Busan that weekend and had just began to fall. One street was lined with pink petals and so the five of us in our party, consisting of a Tibetan Buddhist monk, a Korean born Tibetan monk in training, a Korean-American girl an American and myself, decided to pick up the cherry blossoms and throw them over passing Korean hikers. To this gesture the hikers thanked us and carried on their way.

Anyway, I better get going. It's school sports day today and I can hear crowds of people cheering outside. It's probably a wise idea to join them. I won't post any photos yet, but am in the process of getting all my travel photos so far in Korea on Flickr. I will post the links in another blog post soon.

Ciao for now!