The weekend.....and Incheon

Had better update with the latest!
On Friday we went for dinner and ended up back at Jon's apartment drinking and making t-shirts for his pub crawl on Saturday, which due to me feeling some food poisoning on Saturday I only did the last five subway stops of. On Sunday we had our penultimate match down in Suwon. We won 1-0 and played pretty well throughout. I seem to have got the hang of playing last man now, although Mack may do it this Sunday.
Yesterday I went straight from work to the airport to pick up Meagan, our new teacher. The flight was delayed and the journey back here was such an effort. After the bus dropped us off we still needed to get another mile. After I had carried her heavy bags down into the subway, they decided to close earlier than usual so I had to carry them back up again! Then it took 25 minutes to get a taxi as none wanted to go our way. Eventually we got there after midnight!
At least it's practice for the same trip again on Thursday.

For the first time in three months.....

So I found a block of cheddar cheese! I wonder what I'm making....

Yes you've guessed it, cheese on toast! The cheese was only 6500 won (£3.50) so I may be going to the shop more often!

My new oven

I was in Outlet 2001 last night (a supermarket) and found a small oven for 39,000won or about £20. I spent all day at work thinking about it and all the things I could do with it and just had to buy it this evening! I christened it with garlic bread tonight, it tasted so good! There are so many things I could do with it. It's the perfect size for a chicken breast and a couple of roast potatoes so here come sunday lunches!

Korean Superstitions

I went to lunch with Robert, Sue Sylvia and Patricia from work yesterday. We had some oyster soup type thing which tasted ok. Anyway, as it was a traditional place, we were sitting on the floor barefooted. I got up at the end and couldn't feel my right foot as it had gone to sleep. For a couple of minutes I hobbled about and it didn't get any better so Patricia told me to touch my nose and then my tongue three times. It is a Korean thing, but it worked as the dead foot went away!
I discovered today that writing someone's name in red is considered bad as it signifies blood. My kids were shocked when I did this, even though I use red more than any other colour on the whiteboard. As Santos was getting on my nerves, I decided to keep writing his name in red just to shut him up!
Another Korean tale is that you should never sleep in a room with a fan on and all the windows closed. Apparently the fan will suck all the air out of the room and kill you, otherwise known as 'fandeath!

Look what I found.....

So before I say anything else, look at what I found in a shop in Namdaemun for 1,000 won (60p). they taste so good!

Today I went with Alex for breakfast and then he came to watch me (the human highlight reel) play football. We beat the army team from Osan 5-1, although I still manage to end up shouting at my fellow center back too much due to his inability to listen to my instructions! I played with my destroyed leg which has made it worse. Oh well, pain is temporary, glory lasts forever! Alex took some pictures but I only have the ones he did on my camera which don't have me in them at the moment.

Afterwards, I went to Namdaemun with Alex to wander around. Took a cool picture of the gate to Seoul.



We found shops selling Christmas decorations! If I'm staying here then, I'm totally buying things for my apartment!

The Arrival Of Brocky

Brocky arrived yesterday and we met up today for breakfast and for dinner. I'm so pleased there's another English guy here at last! He's coming to watch us play football tomorrow and then we're going to go to Namdaemun (a market) and get some Korean street food as well as hopefully picking up a few items I need to get.
Last night was good fun. We discovered a new bar one stop away from us that has a really nice atmosphere and serves a huge variety of whisky at only £3 a glass! We were trying to see how expensive the bar girl would let us go with our whisky before she started charging more. We played a lot of darts, and had another ton of beers between us before eventually getting home at 5am. I was seriously outnumbered by Canadians 4-1!!!

Punishment of the week!

I have perfected the art of silencing my class with one simple punishment this week. All you who decide to talk when I don't want you to must put your hands on your head and stand on one leg. You will then switch legs so you are standing on your weaker leg for five minutes!
Highly effective, especially for all those who don't have a sense of balance!

My first haircut and dentist appointment

Yesterday I went to the dentist to check out my chipped tooth. It was all very high tech in there and the nurses were very nice! The girls took me to have an x-ray but did it wrong and it made it look like my tooth needed pulling! So Dr Kang did it himself and it was all fine. As the chip isn't really noticeable and not sharp anymore he said just leave it but come back in three months just to check. This was all for the wonderful price of £2!!!
I've just been to have my very first Korean haircut. I was worried I'd come out looking Korean but with my passport photo in hand and a lot of gestures and simple words I managed to come out ok. So relieved!
Alex is coming out on Friday to work for a year, I can't wait, I now have a non Canadian/American/African drinking buddy!!!
If anyone has $15,000 spare, there is a 200 acre island in Ghana for sale, bargain!
I've found my place to buy though. $76,000 for a 45 acre vineyard in Argentina with vines ready planted ready to produce the Chardonnay!!!

Gangnam

Friday was again spent in Gangnam. Pretty much the same as last week except I chipped a tooth on a bottle and fell asleep on the subway, ending up the wrong end of the city!
Saturday was spent recovering and doing the weekly shop. I discovered a bag of cemantines for $3 so I can now eat fruit cheaply and maybe stop catching all the childrens' illnesses!
I'm excited to get to work tomorrow as our boss and office staff apparently quit on Friday so it'll be interesting to find out what is going.
Football was a shambles today as we only had ten men. One of those got injured in the first two minutes and hobbled around for the next 88 minutes. We lost 6-2 but at least it was only two stops away from home!!
I only have 95 reports to write now! They're so much fun to write. Am I being sarcastic?

Tests and reports

The last two days have been test days at school. Sue, my Korean co-teacher has been doing the reading/writing tests in her classes and I've been doing the speaking tests. It's when we find out who actually knows anything! One girl just sat there and stared at me as she obviously didn't know anything, but one boy wouldn't stop talking his near perfect English!
I now have two weeks to write nearly 120 report cards. I've done six so far!

Tests and reports

The last two days have been test days at school. Sue, my Korean co-teacher has been doing the reading/writing tests in her classes and I've been doing the speaking tests. It's when we find out who actually knows anything! One girl just sat there and stared at me as she obviously didn't know anything, but one boy wouldn't stop talking his near perfect English!
I now have two weeks to write nearly 120 report cards. I've done six so far!

It's colder than Siberia!

Yesterday I walked out of my apartment and nearly froze instantly! The temperature had dropped really low and it was raining. It was even colder today and this isn't even cold for Korea which bodes well for the winter!

The weekend

My weekend has been crazy! On Friday I headed into Seoul and drank a bottle of soju (Korean spirit) on the subway so I was pretty drunk when I got there. I met up with the guys and we headed to a bar and then a couple of clubs in Gangnam. It was going great and at about 2am I wanted food so headed outside to grab something. Whilst at the food stand a group of Koreans started talking to me and invited me to a bar with them. Being drunk, I forgot all about the lads in the club! In the bar, we sat there until 4am and they kept buying me food and drink and then wouldn't let me pay anything, it was great! We left and as the subway doesn't open until 530 had to wait. Two of the Koreans came on the same train as me as they live near me and I passed out on the subway, waking up at my stop. I finally crawled into bed at just after 7!!!!Next Friday I'm going to crash at Danny's house so at least I don't have to stay up all night!
We had a match at 10am in Seoul today which meant leaving the apartment at 7. We lost 2-0 as we were missing a ton of people. At one stage I was on my own in defence with three new African guys who decided not to listen to anything!!!