Hi all of you....

Monday afternoon....just finished last class for the day. Taking it easy before heading off to the gym. School has become a joy now. The other day, I tricked a couple of the youngsters into believing I was going back to Australia...and wasn't coming back. Before I knew it they were crying. Took me 10 minutes trying to tell them I was joking. Apparently.....they do like me here. This next couple of weeks is going to be fun. Wed this week, all the native teachers in Yeoncheon County will go on a Field Trip. Just a get-together for us foreigners....nice gesture from the local Education Office. This weekend is a long weekend.....yee harr. Going to the East Coast for some hiking, beach, and a tupperware party (or two)........Not! Ther'll be 4 of us......unfortunately no woman. It was so good when Tamara was around......she fit in well with us lads. Anyway, we come back to school next Wed, and then shoot-off again on a 2 day trip with the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Jen will be going back to Australia soon......It'll be sorry to see her go. She's a good bird. Poor girl has been stuck out in the sticks with a co-teacher that has not helped her much. I'm amazed she's stuck-out the year out where she is.

 

Chow for now.......good to get you on messenger Dilia.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Well......I'm back in Korea now. Long day of travelling to get here, but I'm all rested and raring to go. Tomorrow is the start of the new school year and I'm yet to see my schedule. Should be an interesting day.......new teachers, new classes, and a few new kiddies.

 

Hiya.

It's Tuesday morning at school, thick fog, cold (but not freezing), and I've just been told to go home and prepare for going home tomorrow. I'm going in to summer, so I don't have alot to pack. The trip will take about a day. Need to leave here at 6am to get all the connecting transport to the airport in Seoul. Flight leaves at 2pm. Have to fly from Seoul into Tokyo, and wait for 5 hours for the connecting flight to Brisbane. Will arrive in Brisbane 7am on Thursday morning. Catch the train to The Gold Coast, then call Sue to pick me up. Soooo looking forward to being in Australia again. See you all soon.

G'day everyone.

 

Happy New Year too. This week has been quite a nice one. No boozing or bingeing. Lessons to teach and 1 day off for new years day. That's ok though because I'm feeling great now. On new years eve I bought some A1 korean steak and cooked up a huge batch of steamed veggies. I know......how healthy is that. In between classes now...sitting here, it's about minus 10 outside, and pretty close to zero inside the school.....and I'm not fibbing either. Walked into Yeoncheon yesterday on my day off. Absolutely beautiful watching the winter bird life, and stopping by the (frozen) river to watch the kids playing on the river. Ice skating and sledding......having a ball. When I got home the tops of my thighs had frozen....no joke, I could not feel them. The walk into town and back home again allowed me to stop and enjoy the many things you can't do when you're on a train or bus.....like patting all the dogs around. Some of them are tied up all their lives. So different to the way we treat dogs in Australia. Eventually, when I do come back, I might even come back with one of the traditional Korean 'Jindo' dogs myself. I only have 1 more week of teaching before I have a long break. I will not be teaching after the 9th Jan, and I cannot go home to Australia early because it is not OFFICIAL leave........bummer. Good reason for me to do some more sightseeing here in Korea. Can't wait to come home and see everyone. Toodles for now. Me.

Hi everybody.

 

Tuesday night and it's dark at 5pm. Lucky for me my apartment is very homely.  The computer helps. Only another 2 weeks of regular semester, then 22nd, 23rd and 24th Dec I'll be teaching Korean teachers intensive Social Sciences. Get this.....I'll be teaching 8 classes a day. I've chosen Archaeology, Egyptology, Anthropology, Australian History, Mesopotamian History, English History, and a couple others.

 

How funny......most of the teachers don't speak alot of English and I have to teach it at a level that they hope to understand. Now this is going to be a challenge. 

 

I was told a few days ago that students, parents, teachers, principal, and local insects want me to stay for next year. Not sure about it. I will need to check out the 2009 contract to see what changes (if any) there will be. If I do decide to stay I will come home for 4 weeks

sometime in late Jan/early Feb. The life here can be rough at times, what with the isolation, but I think I'm over that now. Anyway, if any of you read this.....tell me what you think.

 

Gary. 

Yay.....today we had had the English Festival.......good fun, but hard work. Picture this.....me taking orders in English from young kids, and then relaying that to 4 cooks at the back of the tent. Gary teacher had to put on his friendly, loud voice, while smiling at the kids and taking their money. Talk about hectic.........all the English teacher's will be going out tonight to drown our sorrows. My Infection has gone into my Jaw now. I can only half open my mouth without the sharp pain.......eating has been a lot of fun (not). If I don't feel it getting better by next week, it's off to the Dr's again for x-rays. Boo hoo.....poor me.

Hiya.

 

It's Tues Nov 4th and I have an infection from Wisdom Teeth extraction. Bloody annoying....really busy week, what with the English festival this weekend. Anyhow....off to the hospital now to see what the doctor can do for the me.

Hi all.

 

It's Wednesday, and I'm at home today. Had Wisdom teeth pulled (dug) out yesterday. The dentist had to cut gum....painkillers not too good. Stitches out next week. Went into school this morning.....teaching definately out of the question today. One out last week....two out yesterday. 3 out....cost.....$37 in total. I know.....not bad, hey. Yesterday the school went on a days trip to Paju English Village. I love watching the kids having fun. Some of the kids really do come out of their shells when they do. I love it.

Hi all.

 

I'm great. Hope you are all good too. It's Thursday 2nd, and it's been an excellent week so far. Tomorrow is a National Holiday. Going to (maybe) do some hiking around Seoul on Sat. The weather is cooling down fast. It's perfect now, but in a couple of months I'll be slipping into my long-johns. We had a new Vice Principal start at our school yesterday, so we all had to have dinner together last night. These ocassions are great. There's no bullshit, and everyone is always in a festive mood, especially after a few shots of Soju. I've just been cutting out paper masks for my kindergarten kids to colour-in. They're going to love them I reckon. Things are going really well here. Beginning to think about next year, and what's ahead once my contract finishes in May.

 

 

Hello again.

 

Well, it's the second day into the new term and it feels like I hadn't even left. Back into the swing of things from day 1. The Jeju Island photos will be coming, but Roy needs to compress them on his computer so that I can add them to my blog. Some of the things we did on Jeju......climbed up Mount Halla. 9km's from the carpark to the top. Cycled around a smaller Island.....Udo Island. Got caught in a bad storm on Udo and cycled in our white socks (we only had one pair of shoes and didn't want to get them too soaked).....we still had 4 days left on the Island. The beaches are vastly different to what we are use to in Australia. A million beach umbrellas.....small beach. We walked, swam, biked, bused, taxied, and hiked everywhere. Now Tamara, Berenice, Roy, and I are planning a few days to see the east coast of Korea in September (Chuseok holiday).....maybe. Chuseok is pronounced chew-sock. Just heard about Michael and his ticker. Hope everything is ok there. Anywho.....stay tuned for the photos.....coming soon.

Hi to all of you.

 

It's so nice to be back home after the week on Jeju Island. So much walking, hiking, cycling,

and swimming done.......home to rest until the start of the new semester on Monday. Day 1 of the 

trip was early. Get the 6am train from here, so that we could get to Gimpo Airport 2 hours before

our 12.30 flight to Jeju. Although Jeju is 100km's off the southern-most tip of Korea, the flight only

took an hour. It just felt like an up and down flight. After arriving, we headed east to Hamdeok Beach

 to find accommodation. It was hot, hot, hot, so we booked the first good-looking place.......a resort....very expensive. Great resort. but, get this....no pool. We then trundled off to Manjanggul Lava Caves to explore. We walked 2 km's underground. Pretty amazing stuff. Of course, that night we were exhausted, so we downed

a few ales.

 

Shit.....gotta go. More to come.

 

HI SUZANNE........GOOD TO HERE FROM YOU.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM.........thinking of you heaps........you have such a beautiful soul. Lots of love. GARY. XXOOXX

G'day everybody.

 

Although it's the end of semester, I don't get holidays until Aug 9th. I have 2 weeks of summer camp English to teach. That's ok but, very informal indeedy-doo. The English teachers are all coming around my place again tomorrow, so I'm happy about that. There will be 2 guitars, 2 violins, and a harmonica. The 'Mekchu' will be flowing. Roy and I are heading into Seoul on Sat to watch the Bledisloe Cup on telly....looking forward to that. I've been doing a fair bit of training....trying to get fit for my Jeju Island bike ride. My English Drama class was a success. All who attended thanked me for a good time. Nice to get that from them. Love to all. Me. 

Hi all.

 

It's been awhile since my last update. I'm teaching evening Drama classes to Korean teachers. We're doing 'The Wizard of Oz'. Good laugh.

 

I now have a great bunch of friends here. On Sat night, I had a bunch of English teachers around my apartment playing music and singing. We had 3 guitarists with their instruments, 1 violinist who is sensational, and a guy on his harmonica. We had a ball. We will have another one here in a couple of weeks. One of the guys (Roy) and I are going bike riding around the bottom part of Korea in August. One of the Islands off the southern coast (about 100kl's) is called Jeju Island. We are going to spend a few days riding around it. It's 70kl's by 40kl's wide, and has a huge volcanic mountain in the centre. Looking forward to that.

 

Please leave me a comment sometime.

Hello to you.

 

It's Monday morning. I have my 1st class at 10.30, and I'm pretty sore. Went on 2 decent hikes this weekend gone. The old legs are feeling it, but it's a good sore. Saturday, Tamara, Jen and I met for lunch then walked it off with a 10k jaunt. Yesterday, Roy and I walked up Soyosan......that 1st peak always gets me.....it's so bloody steep. Views from the top are pretty special though. Back in the swing of things here at school for another week. Must admit, I'm enjoying it here more when there are things to do with other native English teachers......and it's so nice to be able to speak at a regular pace with them. Hope you are all well. I am fit and healthy, and still loving the experience. That's it for now. Love to you all. MWAH.

Hi all.

 

It's Sunday morning. Went to Seoul yesterday to watch the Super 14's final. Bugger.......the Waratah's got done by the Crusader's. Oh well, nice to have some VB's though. The kids are really enjoying my presence here. Every morning before the start of school there are always a bunch of them in my classroom waiting for me. This time is great, they play twister, and have a good laugh. My English Drama classes will be starting a lot sooner than I thought. I will start teaching after school from June 24th. There will be 22 Korean speaking English teachers. I'm hoping to break them out of their shyness towards expressing themselves in English. The warm-up exercises, including vocal warm-up, will scare them a bit, I reckon. But......they'll get over it. Roy, the new South African teacher, is a good friend. He loves his rugby, as do I. So we've been heading into Seoul a fair bit recently. Tamara and Berenice will join us next week for some fun in Seoul. Apart from teaching the little ones, not much has changed here, so I'll sign out and say cheerio for now.

  

Hello to all of you.

 

It's warming up a little here. No more snow for atleast 8 months. Looking forward to the stinking hot summer here. I've nearly been here for a year now. This second year will be alot more relaxing, because I have adjusted to the lifestyle. I must admit, the first 6 months here was really stressful. They have given me more classes to teach, so I'm pleased about that. My language skills are picking up too.

 

I went on a nice 5 hour hike on the weekend. Loved it. Great for the old bod, not so good on the knees. Walking down the last mountain was excruciatingly steep, and seemed to never end. Glad I did I though. The photo's should tell the story. I'm enjoying yoga again in the evenings. Not much to say, except life here is good.

 

Toodles

First day back and it's snowing....a total contrast from being on The Gold Coast yesterday, wearing singlet and shorts. Overall, the trip back took 19 hours. It was great to catch up with family.

 

Now it's time for work. The school has totally re-arranged my classroom, and I've just been given my schedule for the year......Yep, it's going to be a busy year.

Hello everyone.

I've just managed to book my flight to Brisbane. I did not think I was going to get a seat. Apparently, everyone is going to Australia in mid-Feb. I arrive in Brisbane on Feb 14th. Plenty of people to see, so I will need to hire a car for a while I think.