The Next Big Thing

So I've finished teaching at OES Kids, Anseong, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. It was a fantastic experience, my first 'real' job out of university and has probably marked the beginning of my ESL teaching career. Now I'm at a bit on an in-between stage as I prepare for what's next for me. Which, if everything goes okay, will be a teaching job in Thailand.
I finished work on Tuesday, had an unexpectedly busy day Wednesday as I sorted out my accounts and stuff for my trip to China. Today has been spent packing as Courtney has been told that she has to move out of her apartment by the end of the week. That leaves us with nowhere to stay once we come back from China. We have a few friends we (hopefully) will be able to bunk with but it was an unexpected and stress inducing piece of news. I'm positive that things will turn out okay.

Insadong-gil

Closed shop

Fan handles

World's only Starbucks not written in English

Bargain hunting

Fixed Fans

Painted Fans

Green Korea

Mountain Stream, Jeju-do

Bicycle and gate, Hongdae

Party Island Peak, Deokjeokdo

Hallasan Raven, Jeju-do

Farmer in rice field, Nae-ri

Suwon Immigration - The Joy of Bureaucracy

Today I was taken, along with Lyndsey, to the Suwon Immigration office. We were picked up at 7:30am outside our apartment by Mr. Bang, second incharge over at the main branch of OES. Lyndsey needed to have her Alien Card application sorted. I had to get an extension on my VISA and a re-entry permit so I can go to China and come back into Korea. Saves me from carting all my stuff with me.
We rock up at the unassuming immigration office just as the doors open. However the doors open 15 minutes before the staff start work. I suppose it gives people a chance to start queuing but doesn't make much sense to me.
Lyndsey and I were chatting away. I commented on the many stamps present in her passport and so she recanted tales of her trip through Africa, which sounded fantastic. In my original plans to go around the world without flying I wasn't planning on visiting Africa as there is a lot of land to cover there and sticking to the north meant easier overland travel but as my visions of future travels are changing I certainly plan on doing some traveling there.
Eventually the desks at the office were manned and, being early birds we were soon seen to. I needed my passport and green card, the forms had all been filled out for me. Mr. Bang told me halfway through the preceedings that I would have to go and buy three stamps. So I went over to a little desk in the corner and bought 3 stamps for 10,000 won each (five pounds). I took them back to the desk where the action was and was duely informed that I didn't need the stamps. Fortunately they were refundable. My only guess is that I needed to prove that I could buy the stamps. Go figure.

Free Chicken Sandwich

Courtney and I have a little sandwich shop we like to go to. We go there partly because they do pretty good food at low prices and partly because its usually the only place open early in the morning. We also like going there as the man that runs it is quite fantastic. We often come in to find him asleep on one of the benches. He wakes up and looks at us as if wondering what we're doing in his bedroom,only to realise that he feel asleep at work again. He also moves at a pace usually only measured by geologists, so going there for a quick snack isn't a good idea.
We went there this morning for breakfast. He was up and about this time as there were some customers already there. Court was a little under the weather with a sore throat so was holding off on breakfast so she just got an orange juice while I got myself a coffee and a bagel (I'm turning American). As it happened the sight of food brought back Court's appetite so I went up to order another bagel.
He was busy making a sandwich so I was standing at the counter for about a minute or so before he came over. I asked, in my best Korean, for a cream cheese bagel. A puzzled look flashed across his face and he told me 'no'. He told me no because he was making us a free chicken sandwich. It was delicious. But I don't understand why. Ah Korea.

Consumerism/Anti-consumerism

You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy. ~Eric Hoffer



At the moment I'm living a fairly spartan lifestyle. Everything I own will fit into a couple of bags, it has to if I want to take it home with me. Yet the things that I do have are generally quite energy intensive: mac laptop, graphics tablet, dSLR, lenses. I tend to swing quite wildly from a fairly anti-consumerist/environmentalist outlook on life, to thinking how wonderful the new ipod touch looks.
A big part of my desire to reduce my consumption is to reduce my impact on the world. This year I've already flown a couple times and will be making at least three more international flights in the near future. Big CO2 emissions right there. That said, my day-to-day life is fairly low impact: I take to bus to and from work, I'm trying, fairly successfully to not use plastic bags and I recycle my plastics, tins and glass.

During my final year at university I took an environmental politics class so I have a fair idea of how bad the state of affairs are at the moment. I'd certainly like to do more to keep up to date with current environmental issues. I listen to a few podcasts here and there but just keeping abreast of the issues isn't enough, especially when done through electricity guzzling gadgets. This revival in trying to do my bit has been sparked by the trailer for the film No Impact Man, a film about a New Yorker who for a year tries to ensure that his family and himself have zero environmental impact. Some may think that do such a thing would require serious curtailments of their comfortable living and I for one am eager to see just how big the adjustments are that they have to make.

This led me to thinking, just how much would I be willing to sacrifice in order to help reduce my impact on the planet? I suppose the wise thing to do would be to first workout what my current impact is. I'll let you know how that goes. But just doing a mental checklist of the things that I do have, I don't think I could do without many of them. I love digital photography, and hoopefully through wildlife photography I will be able to use my skills to raise awareness of environmental issues so no getting rid of my camera. Which means I need my laptop. And my external harddrives. I could probably do without the graphics tablet but I don't think that adds much to the equation. I don't have a car or a motorbike, but I do tend to sleep with the air-conditioning on. So that's something right there I could deal with.
The next major impact I have would be the traveling I do. In just over a fortnight I'm flying to China for a week, then I'm flying back home to the UK for about a month, then the plan is to take a one way flight to Thailand. I do have the option of offsetting that through a company that specializes in such things but I don't really trust many of them. Partly because I don't really understand them. How does my money offset my carbon? Another thing to look into. Before leaving university I came up with the idea of traveling the globe without flying. The idea of a world trip is beginning to lose interest for me as my time in Korea has taught me the value of staying in one place to gain a more complete experience. So perhaps I could look into more terrestrial travel for the shorter trips I hope to be making. It might mean more time and money, but it will lead to a better understanding of the distances I'm traveling and the way the landscape changes, experiences that are difficult to have from 30,000 feet.
Just some of my rambling thoughts.

Raptor Pee

After dinner we were walking back towards my apartment building when, circling overhead we saw a small bird of prey. I really need to start learning whats what so I can identify these critters but from here on in it shall be referred to as 'the raptor'.
The raptor settled on a building adjacent to mine, which my building overlooked. As I live on the top floor of the 12 floor building I decided to stick my head out the window and see if I could catch another glimpse of it. Well I was scanning the neighbouring building for any bird forms. Some way off there was a magpie on a rooftop, but my raptor, it appeared, was gone. Dejected, I hung my head and there, perched on the open window 4 floors below was the raptor. Excited about being so close and the unique perspective I rushed to my apartment, hastily attached lens to body and rushed back to the window.
Alas the perch was bare. I gave the surrounding windows another looking at before once again hanging my head. On the roof of the building next to mine, quite far down, there was a woman with two dogs, so I watched them for a little while. Then something moved from within the eighth floor. It was wing. The raptor was in the building.
Figuring that waiting for the elevator would take too long, barefooted I dashed down the stairs. I reached the eighth floor and tentatively poked my head around the corner. Sure enough, inside my apartment was this gorgeous bird of prey. I gingerly eased my camera to eye level and managed to just snap off one frame before the decided that it no longer wanted to be there and slipped out the window.
Hoping to get some shots of it gliding through the evening sky I dashed to the window, It was when I reached the window that I stepped in a puddle. A puddle that was directly under where the raptor had just been perched. I didn't managed to get anymore shots of it, but such a close encounter with an animal such as that was a great experience for me.

So much clearer now.

My Korean-American coworker Claire just translated the itinerary to me. Looks like its going to be a pretty regimented trip. Not a great deal of time to ourselves. Which is a pity as I was really looking forward to hooking up with Courtney and Co. on the island. Nick is always good for a laugh and Colleen certainly seems to be a cool cat.
Claire seems to share my concerns about being carted around for the whole weekend so the two of us might make a break for freedom. With her linguistic skills and my ability to lift heavy objects, nothing can stand in our way.
Having said all that, it will nice to be shown around Jeju. I know Court is a little concerned about finding her way around, as she will probably do the talking for Colleen and Nick. Plus everything is on the island is being paid for by work so I should probably quit complaining and enjoy the amazing opportunity I'm being presented with.

American Colonialism

So Courtney's friend, Colleen, from back home is here with us in the Land of the Morning Calm. She arrived last night and will be staying with us in my apartment. Courtney seems quite excited but is making sure that I don't feel as though they're taking over my apartment. At the moment I certainly don't and I don't see it becoming a problem for the week that Colleen will be with us. There's plenty of room for the three of us, especially since Court and I moved one of the beds downstairs a while back. This means that Colleen has the upstairs as her own, minus the space taken up with all my drying laundry!
I'm excited to have someone new here. It was great when my friend Nicky came for a weekend. Having people over to visit helps remind you about what is great about Korea, things I've started to take for granted. The food alone is worth coming here for, let alone Korea's rich history and vibrant modern cultural identity (this is expressed through K-Pop, Animal themed coffee shops and a serious passion for fashion).
There will be quite a crowd of us going to Jeju. Not only the whole OES workforce, but Courtney, Colleen and Nick will all be on the island this weekend. I still haven't managed to decipher the itinerary for the trip yet but I really hope it won't be a too rigidly structured trip. It would be great to hang out with Court and Co. rather than my work colleages, as nice as they are.

Take my advice, I'm not using it...

So much for focusing on my time in Korea.
Been looking at the CELTA course that ECC does in Thailand. It's a tad annoying that after three years and ten grand it looks like I'm going to have to fork out another thousand pounds for another qualification. Normally the idea of paying for some sort of course wouldn't be much of an issue for me, except that I'm getting the qualification to do a job I'm already doing.
Except there are no mangoes growing in Korea...

Summer Program

Its the start of the Summer Term at OES Kids. It means an earlier start, earlier finish, and, most importantly of all, a proper lunch.
This also means that I'm entering the final chapter of my time here in South Korea, just 15 teaching days left. I've had an amazing time here in the Land of the Morning Calm, but I need to remember that I'm not actually leaving for about a month yet, so I still have time to enjoy Korea and I should try and limit how 'checked out' I become.
Which will be difficult as the next destination will be Thailand...