Well ... more days at the office

I would like to make a note prior to anybody reading this, and that is, this is one of the posts that i've had drafted for some time now and i FINALLY posted so just deal with the time shift okay ? just imagine we've like... i dunno... gone back in time or something ;)

Alright so i've been just as unattentive of my blog as my sister has, but in my defense i will just go ahead and blame my distractedness on the presence of my better looking half. I LOVE the fac tthat she's around and i feel that an unattended/neglected blog is a small price to pay for her company.

okay :) so that was basically my disclaimer :P hahahaha :p for.... something.

anyway. thought i'd update everybody (well anybody who still reads my blog)

Shir and i have made our rounds to many many places 6 different places at least.

1/ Itaewon (took her there for THE kebab" :P)
2/ Yongsan (for a movie and checking out one of the cooler malls around here)
3/ Dondaemun (for a nice walk around and to check out a *very* small part of the shopping available there *you'll see*)
4/ Hongik
5/ Gyeongbokgung Palace
6/ Suwon (the traditional folk village)
7/ Local restaurant for company dinner (paid food and alcohol :P what more could i ask for? :P)

So many places yet so few huh? i mean in reality we can only get days out during the weekend obviously, and i must say that she's enjoying her sleep very much nowadays :P but then so am I, so we sleep in pretty late (usually 11-12). I will be posting up pictures on facebook soonish so look for the full albums there.

Here are some picture from those above places.

Itaewon....


A lil video about THE kebab :P





"one more try" at what? i don't even know........



Itaewon's main strip



and a happy girl with Cold Stone Creamery products :P (predictably it's the same as Cold Rock for those who know)


Yongsan:



Some random girls modelling cars in a small car display area in Yongsan Station.....

Definitely the best thing about Korean food is that it's plentiful and for the large part very healthy, everything is made using fresh ingredients and that minimal amount of perservatives are being used. Also for the amount that you pay you really get quite a bit.


To the left we have bulgogi soup and the right one is Galbi Tang which is pork rib soup



And this is.. mung bean pancake :) which is REALLY awesome very crunchy and tasty =)

Dongdaemun: East Main Gate




Sits on the Cheonggye Stream that runs all the way through Seoul, makes for a seriously nice night walk if you're into that kind of thing. Best to be done with a partner if possible seeing as the entire area is littered with couples etc etc etc



These were taken when wewent out with the people who did the Camps, same company, different projects i guess you could say:



The sensible couple caught amongst the rabble :P




One thing that's interesting with Korean bars is that they weren't serve you drink unless you eat something, so despite the drinking culture the still feed you in order to either
a/make it harder to get drunk or
b/ make it more colourful when the time comes for you to leave a deposit at the bar



Dan decided that these lovely ladies were too pretty to not talk to... so he went and talked to them.. :)



The stud and myself :P and John with the stud :P


This fella's name is Patrick, apparently well known to the Camp people and totally unknown to me.. Jin is also know to these Camp people most likely as some kind of pisspot :P hahahaha *jokes*
On the right is Chris, he's a pretty good bloke .... for a pom :P hahahahah
speaking of that i've noticed that people you might diss at home you kinda cling to in another country... i'm just dying to meet people who actually understand my english :P and who better than a bunch of poms :P i met some aussies a while back too..... thought they were pretty cool til i found out they were from Queensland... but i figure outside of the homeland it's not abotu which state... it's the fact that you're all Aussie :P


Gyeongbokgung / Gyeongbok Palace:
Now here was a .. sunday i think... and it was raining... basically just bad weather.. we ended up having to leave this place early cos we got there late and they closed earlier for whatever unknown bloody evil dastardly reason *SIGH* :



Don't you reckon the right one looks a bit photoshopped? and man do i look STUNNED ;p



the murally thingy on the top of the royal antechameber i guess you'd call it....
and the .. receving chair i spose?



and the part that we didn't get to cos they closed early.... blaaardy.... some pagoda i'm guessing it's the palace's private lil buddhist thing.

I also have pics of another palace we went to.... no disrespect but i gotta say you see one you've seen them all... like we were SOO BORED by the end of the other one's tour (you had to be part of a a tou in order to have a look around that monstrosity because it's a heritage listed site and blah blah blah :P

Suwon, Traditional korean folk village:
The traditional folk village is created to display a collection of traditional houses from the various regions of the Korea, basically most of them looked the same except for very small differences but that's.. expected i guess? Anyway the day was pretty enjoyable and we just walked about and checked everything out. It was a nice day :)








Me carrying the nightsoil buckets....

But all in all a nice day out bit of rain but nothing too unmanageable

Company Dinner:
This was a pretty sweet night it was just a lil celebration for a successful and completed move to a new location so the Boss took us to the nearby Korean BBQ restaurant, where we all can order whatever you want and in true Korean style the boss will leave so the workers can get trashed out of sight of the executive.



Left: The Korean teachers (KTs) and English Language Teachers (ELTs) and Linda the VP
Right: That's the admin directore Ryu (who's now quit) pouring beer into VP Linda's Neng Myun bowl :P hehehehe



Left: that's use with our new Elementary Head Teacher Joanna :)



Our Kindergarten teachers, Irene, Bonnie, (KTs) Emily and Rachel (ELTs)





And what was left after Jes Island staff went throught this place :P

I'll also add that we went to noraebang (K for all you honkies out there) afterwards... but the pics of Ryu dancing so.... shamelessly (was the word me and Rachel decided.... Linda said professional but the rest of us begged to differ) are just too disturbing :P


**** At this point i'll remind you all that this happened some time ago.... i can't exactly remember when **********


So as for working atm, i must say that i'm a bit pissed off in general with the company, the kids i teach are for the most part okay thought there was one lesson that almost left me in tear of frustration and almost ended with me putting a (or several) kids heads through the wall or window (and for those who caught it, that was the day i had "violence against children should be made legal..... in some contexts")

okay fine.. i lied...... it wasn't just one class.... there were 2 classes that day that drove me up the wall pretty hard..... fine ... there were 3 (though one occasion was the same class but different day)

So this is what happened:
I was explaining to this class (the one where there's like... 1 bright student and the rest are either annoying or just plain dumb)the same thing for 20 minutes.... with some kids not paying attention, and at the end of it all they all turn to me and say " i don't understand" (well actually they said "this whAAAAAAT" which is dumb korean kid of saying the same thing) now it's doesn't sound that bad cept that this occurred for the enTIRE 40 minutes of class.
this also happened another time in the same class... but it was 3 kids in particular who have practised and perfected "i'm so fricken dumb" look..... on kid even perfected the very difficult.. "behind these eyes there is nothing but empty space *space space space*" -.-

omg i just wanted to cry or kill.....
but i managed to get through each time with a simple "i have inhumane patience" chant that i've started just for these occasions.

The other class i had 2 kids, both of whom are generally fairly smart but both as as hyperactive and "easy" to control as their intelligence. What ended up happening in that class was that they tried to kick the crap out of each other.... i blocked the kid (one i HATE) and he decided that it was more fun to kick me instead so i put one hand on his chest (cool enough was that my hand fit over his chest and around his ribs) i shoed him into the wall and just squeezed while looking at him and telling him not to kick me. shrugs* it was a slight thing... but it was OH SO satisfying =)


So anyway we've moved to the new school, here are some pics




and the news here is that as of July 22 til August 22 we have the "Summer Intensive" program, i've interpreted this as an indication that parents here don't want their kids to have actual holiday, mainly cos "omg... no! it'd be unproductive (or "un pulo-duk-tiv-u" as they may say it)" so we must send them to hagwons, who obligingly create summer study programs which are a bit more light-hearted but still.... study... holidays..... blasphemous. *shakes head*