There was Much to give thanks for...

So the week of the 21^st of September...

FREEK!!!  I HAVE BEEN HERE MORE THAN A MONTH ALREADY!

Assessment of Month 1: (Scores out of 10)

1.       Food (9) (But for my one gaffe (Described later as “Waiter, waiter, there is a chicken foot on my plate!”) I have loved the food, even though I don’t like all my food being spicy, I am certainly eating well and healthily for the main part)

2.       Public transport (8) (Only because I am in a small county and unless you can read Hangul you will struggle with the busses. Big cities have a much easier bus system and subway lines. Trains are great overall though)

3.       Women (8) (Asian women are stunning, they really are, no bias was applied at all I promise)

4.       Beaches (3)  (They have sand and water but to have a beach you need DUNES AND THE UNCOMPROMISING, TEMPEST THAT IS THE OCEAN)

5.       Night life (7). (There is an awful lot of drinking (Seelater: And-ong ‘die’ adda hand Darren... ) which in the main is not my scene, but you have beautiful hills (I am yet to class anything here as a mountain just purely on principle) to hike and camp (still looking for climbing spots), and there are Nori Bang’s, PC Bang’s, DVD Bang’s (Bang is the Korean word for room), Bowling, Billiards, Pool (in some places) Coffee shops, Pubs, Restaurants...)

6.       Scenery (10) (This score was amended from a 7 following my Hiking trip with the staff from Go Gyeon. It is not quite the varied jewel in the African crown that SA is but oh so beautiful in other ways (particularly when you travel by train or go on hikes – the rolling hills look spectacular and when you have a solitary temple in the middle of all this is really thought provoking and serene.)

7.       People (9) (Though the language is minimal, they will always try and help. The age hierarchy is adhered to as the rule rather than the exception. The people are also very warm and generous)

8.       Cost of Living (6). (It is not that I am a materialist by any means but  stuff you need every day is relatively expensive here. Particularly fresh food as it is all imported. That is why you see half of Korea always eating out.)

TOTAL: 60/80

As  school resumed on 20 September, and I had been picked up outside Dunkin Doughnuts  (hence forth referred to as DD) by a very swish looking Mr Park (Grey dress jacket, black formal pants, short sleeve white shirt and slightly sparkly, thin pink tie). I sat down at my desk and was just centring myself before my “Tomb” period with my 3^rd graders, when Mr Lee (or Mr Eee as he seemed to pronounce it) walked up to my desk and handed me a box: “For you, Choesok (Korean Thanksgiving Sept 21, 22, 23) gift from us teachers.” It was really heart-warming.

They couldn’t hold out and let me find out what it was – it was a box of 3 pairs of imported Italian socks. Very cool (See pic) I later found out that hot (but boyfriended-though I have my own fantastic companion in my life now. She goes by the name of Sandy and things this far have gone brilliantly, though that is enough about that for now...) teacher Jade had chosen them for me. She was very chuffed with herself on the slightly terrifying ride home (early!! Because it was the start of Choesok the next day) that afternoon. Indecently, Ashil was given 6months supply of SPAM as a gift – swings and roundabouts! HA HA HA!

It was then that I experienced my 1^st Korean Traffic Jam! Everyone was getting out of the cities and going to their families for the holiday period. SO FAR (though Seoul looked intense-read later) their traffic jams had nothing on a good old JHB slobberknocker! )

Pohang comes to Yoenchoen

Tuesday I got to sleep in as it was a holiday. Upon waking I remembered that I was meeting Sandy and Colleen to go to the train station and Meet: Dan, Sam and Courtney who were coming into Yoenchoen for thanksgiving supper (And Sam was joining on the Seoul Trip so she was leaving with Sandy, Colleen, Myself and Ashli, the next day.) After dropping off luggage at my (For Dan) and Sandy’s (for Sam and Courtney) place we went bowling.

Things were tight... It was Colleen, Dan and I vs the 3 ladies. (on an individual basis I WON THE WHOLE BANG SHOOT with a score of 86) but think 1999 Cricket World Cup Semi... OH THE TENSION!!!   *http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxVNtuDKsds*



Courtney and I going stride for stride, arm for arm..



With one frame to go we were one pin behind and pulled in front through Dan’s spare and having an extra bowl as a result.  Sandy did just enough with her second attempt at the lane to get 8 pins and wrestle the lead back to one pin. We needed Sam’s rocket harm to fail and Colleen to remain consistent. Sam Steps up...

Sam gracefully flings the ball straight down the centre of the lane.

8 pins.

Colleen, under loads of pressure and trash talk gets 6 pins.

Team CSS have a 3 min strategy pow-wow. Team DGC less impressed. Sam steps up for 2^nd bowl...

SHE MISSES HER REMAINING 2 PINS. Colleen need a difficult 3 pins to tie and a spare for the win...

She knocks down... 2 pins. Our hearts drop. Dan sinks to his knees asking “Why!!!... So close”. I am inconsolable. The SMUG Team CSS do their victory jumpy jumpy, no humility...

JUST KIDDING! It was great fun and we all shook hands following the clash of two evenly matched teams. Though there was a little gloating... next time we will see!!

That evening (after coffee at De Vinci) we had a brilliant supper – for the menu check out (Sam’s blog/Sandy’s blog). Team Pohang thought they would surprise us and dressed up all smart like. I was happy with my collared shirt and shorts but then Dan walked in, in a full suit and tie – not to be outdone I went and grabbed a tie from my room and returned to the festivities. I was put in charge of the OCTIPUS. NO JOKES – raw proper octi, not calamari. I had to cut off the head and the beaks before we cooked it in a spicy sauce stirfry style! We had so so much food and we took a table and chairs up to the roof and ate it under the starts. What a great way to conclude out introduction to Korea and to crown my new Korean family! Everyone did look oh so swish I have to say. It was great to be able to do that. It was at that point that we decided to do 2 things: 1:Make a Halloween horror movie for a lesson about Halloween (I have left the rest of the crew to the details as I have never done Halloween before. Script to follow). 2: to take a walk up into the hills after dinner and just try and star gaze (kinda worked) but it was so quiet and peaceful that it was awesome. It gave me some thinking time which I needed.

*Thanks to Courtney and Sam here as I am using some of their photo's.

More Pics to be added later