School Paper Interview

Had a gruelling interview with the School

Newspaper... It was So Cute the girl came andsaid... ''Question" after 10Mins we were no Further forward! i tried everything. to get her to ask the question! i even got her a chair! After much prompting Google translate and my poor Korean the question was asked you... why did you come to korea ? I kept. the answer short for obvious reasons!!!

Moving in!

Finally moving in to our new place!

I came home from work to collect my stuff from ok gils house with some chocolate for the kids..
Expecting to have lots of boxes to move go find that most of it has gone... but no one here!

Gong rang after 10 mins to say she would be back in 20 mins!

So just waiting now.

Hopefully the furniture is already there.

Really looking forward go the new place!♥♥♥

Our apartment

Our apartment on the 5th floor

Spent the day cleaning the apartment!

It was dirty and took allday

Cute faces / White day / Steve jobs from Microsoft!

Today i taught the principle, yesterday I was told 9:00am but apparently I was meant to be there at 8:35 - she didn't seem to mind, the 40 mins went quickly as she showed me photo's of all her holidays... rather than the english lesson I had prepared...


Today is `White day`...  a kind of  korean valentines day so on the way home I purchased to specially packaged sweets for the occasion, one for nuna and one for ji gong! I was a little unsure of the correct protocol of white day but she seemed pleased!

Today I also taught 2 periods of 3rd grade!! - Ha ha they were so cute!  but at that age they need songs... repetitive songs.. Hi Hi Hi I'm kevin, nice to meet you kevin bye bye bye kevin! etc etc....  They loved it,but really not my thing!  The kids however were very cute,  I got given some biscuits and a chupa chup lolly, not sure if that is for white day or just because they were pleased to see me! However they squealed with delight when I said Anyong!

I looked through some of the teaching materials we have at school and this one caught my eye...
A picture of Bill Gates with a windows logo, labelled as Steve Jobs!!  He will be turning in his grave!

Special Needs!

I found out I have a special needs kids in one of my sixth grade classes... I found this out when I tried to find out why he wasn't doing the  tasks in class.  It wasn't initially obvious... sometimes the inane grinning at my requests in English are due to the novelty of  my being a foreignerand not having a high level of Enlish rather than learning difficulties so i persevered, until the rest of the kids and finally the teacher told me that he "just cant do it, he is not normal"  .

I feel some kind of responsibility, but I guess that responsibility lies with the school not me.  they have a special education program for him in which covers Korean and maths but not english.  It seems unfair and pointless to put him through so many hours a week of classes if he is getting no benefit from it... I dont want to exclude him I want to find a way of including him.  I know there is a special care teacher at the school as  I answered the phone once when she called and she seemed to speak English quite well.  Maybe I will message her about a plan for him...

I was quite surprised that it wasn't mentioned before.

You'll love how you fell everyday...

Spent Saturday shopping for furniture. As always my Ji Gong got a good deal.
She has a unique negotiating technique which consists of dragging the process of buying something out so long the the sales guy loses the will to live and agrees to whatever demands, and in the case of Ji Gong - Discounts, are being requested.

Highlight for me was this brochure and it's English language mistake.

You'll love how you fell everyday...




We managed to buy a bed each for the kids (one pink one blue) a bed for us, a wardrobe for one of the kids rooms (as one is built in) A GIANT wardrobe for us. A dressing table, a bedside table, a rice cooker unit with a cabinet door that turns into a table, a computer table with a shelf unit, a computer chair, a Dining table and chairs...  I think that was it... oh, of course mattresses for all the beds.

The table we wanted, but couldn't afford

A heated bed with a surface like the floor (hard) point?

Some wardrobes

We finished the day off with an great meal in a BBQ restaurant, with lots of steak and pork... and beer!

 Sunday we went to Sunae Lotte department store, Harvey and I had been craving pizza so we had that as well as some sushi! We went there to meet a friend from Cambridge at who owns his own investment bank.  He has offered to help me connect with Seoul based people. He is a very nice guy and it is good to know well connected people, especially in Korea.  As no where is it more true that "it is not what you know, it is who you know!"




Erin is becoming Quite the Poser... HA HA

My Journey Home

My journey at the moment is along the Bundang line here is a selection of images from my Journey home!

Took while walking to get a sense of movement

Ajuma (old Woman)

Again wanted a sense of movement

Migeum Station Sign

Bundang Line

Moran Station

Walking Home

Walking Home

Coffee Break!

The girls got me a coffee and some cake!!!

Everyone is so nice here!

Thanks!

Extended Sojourn!

"sojourn - a short period when a person stays in a particular place"


I went to the immigration office in Suwon today!  It was busy...  even at 9:30 there were 200 people waiting.  Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, and the odd yank and Brit amongst them!  The wait was particularly unbearable for me as on arrival after the 30 min bus ride from miguem Erin vomited... and... I am not really sure why, but I made a futile attempt to catch it in my hand.  


I went to the toilet in the immigration centre and ... NO Soap!!!!! Even now  several buckets of soap and 7 hours later I can still smell it!


Anyway, Great news is that I have extended my visa and applied for my residents card...  The number and all its healthcare glory will be given in 2 weeks...  the card itself will arrive in 4 weeks!


The visa extension was granted for 2 years, they still call it a sojourn extension... I wonder is there such a thing as a long Sojourn!


the whole process was very quick but the waiting took so long so i missed my grade 6 group 5 lesson...... OOOOPS!


Thankfully no vomit on the bus ride back!


... and meeting Dr Moon tonight for dinner!

Bank card and spelling my name!

I don't quite understand but in order to get meals at school i need to
have a bank account with a certain bank. so today, with the help of ji
gong and her friend i got my first Korean bank account!
The good thing about Korean banks is that you they create your bank
card at the counter, the bad thing is that this is open to error... it
took 3 attempts to get my card right! i was ... Rovert silliam Oakle
... Robert William Oakey
before finally becoming Robert William Oakley.
.../ anyway so i now have a Korean bank card. obviously as a foreigner
there are restrictions such as no overdraft and my debit card is a
"check" card so i have to put money on it each month or whenever which
is fine! i also went to another bank and my credit card is on it's
way!
WELCOME TO KOREA!

First day of teaching went extremely well! although i am sure one boy
was in all of my 5 lessons of grade 6 today!

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i had my medical on sat am. came back negative! i have type A blood
and don't have any defence against TB. so apparently i should get
some!

the urine test was odd i was complaining about having to pee in an
open plastic pot and when i handed it in i saw that everyone else
seemed to have a paper cup!
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we signed for an apartment in Jukjeon. with 3 bedrooms and a great river view!

i will try to expand on this later!

Arrived!

Arrived in Korea! tired sore throat can't sleep work tomorrow
sorted!!! more this weekend! after my first day!

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